Ecuadoran President Guillermo Lasso escalated the nation’s political crisis on Wednesday by dissolving the Ecuadoran National Assembly just as it was forging ahead with impeachment proceedings to remove him from office on embezzlement allegations.
In disbanding the assembly, Lasso made first use of the Ecuador presidency’s nuclear option under the constitution in conflicts with the legislative branch, turning his country into the latest in Latin America where rival constitutional powers come to a head.
The conservative president, who has denied wrongdoing, can now govern for up to six months by decree under the oversight of Ecuador’s top court.
Photo: Bloomberg
While Lasso appeared to have the support of the country’s armed forces, his move swiftly drew pushback from critics, who said his ouster had been imminent.
In a televised message, Lasso accused the National Assembly of focusing “on destabilizing the government.”
He called his move “democratic” and described it as a way to give Ecuadorans “the power to decide their future in the next elections.”
“This is the best possible decision,” he said.
Soon after Lasso’s announcement, the South American country’s top military leader said that the armed forces would act “firmly” if any violence erupts.
A strong contingent of military and police officers blocked access around the National Assembly building in Ecuador’s capital, Quito.
Lawmakers had accused Lasso of not having intervened to end a contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company.
They said Lasso knew the contract was full of irregularities and would cost the state millions in losses, something he has rejected as untrue.
Known colloquially as the “death cross,” the option to disband the National Assembly and temporarily rule by decree was established in Ecuador’s constitution in 2008 as a means of avoiding protracted periods of political paralysis.
In neighboring Peru, conflicts between the opposition-led legislature and president also led to attempts to oust each other last year. Then-Peruvian president Pedro Castillo tried to dissolve the Peruvian Congress and head off his own impeachment in December last year, but lawmakers quickly voted him out of power and law enforcement arrested him, which resulted in months of deadly protests.
Ecuadoran legal analyst Ramiro Aguilar said a conflict between the assembly and the president can last years, and “it is a conflict that paralyzes the country.”
However, he added that if the president disbands the assembly, the country loses democratic debate during the interim.
“There will be a unilateral voice of the executive branch imposing a course without the counterweight of the assembly and the country loses credibility, because it is left with a weak institutional framework,” Aguilar said.
On Wednesday, the Ecuadoran National Electoral Council had seven days to call presidential and legislative elections, which must be held within 90 days. Those elected would finish the terms of Lasso and the lawmakers he ousted, which had been set to end in May 2025. Lasso can choose to run in the election.
Lasso, a former banker, was elected in 2021 and has clashed from the start with a strong opposition in the 137-member National Assembly. He defended himself before the Ecuadoran Congress on Tuesday, saying there was no proof or testimony of wrongdoing.
Lasso’s governing powers are limited.
Constitutional attorney Ismael Quintana said that the president can only address economic and administrative matters, and the Constitutional Court will have to approve his decisions.
After Lasso announced his decision on Wednesday, head of the Joint Command of the Armed Forces General Nelson Proano called on Ecuadorans to maintain respect for the law and warned against rupturing the constitutional order through violence.
If violence erupts, the armed forces and police “will act firmly,” he said.
Lasso’s move quickly led to criticism from the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities, which in recent years has carried out protests that have virtually paralyzed the country.
Its leader, Leonidas Iza Salazar, said Lasso “launched a cowardly self-coup with the help of the police and the armed forces, without citizen support” as he faced “imminent dismissal.”
Will Freeman, fellow for Latin America studies at the Council on Foreign Relations, said Lasso’s decision signals that “he was aware the opposition had enough votes to impeach him, and maybe then some.”
He said mass protests are likely in the coming days.
“It’s also hard to imagine Lasso is making this move without the tacit support of top brass in the military,” he said. “In the past, protests have tended to turn destructive quickly — and security forces have also cracked down.”
The Philippines yesterday said its coast guard would acquire 40 fast patrol craft from France, with plans to deploy some of them in disputed areas of the South China Sea. The deal is the “largest so far single purchase” in Manila’s ongoing effort to modernize its coast guard, with deliveries set to start in four years, Philippine Coast Guard Commandant Admiral Ronnie Gil Gavan told a news conference. He declined to provide specifications for the vessels, which Manila said would cost 25.8 billion pesos (US$440 million), to be funded by development aid from the French government. He said some of the vessels would
CARGO PLANE VECTOR: Officials said they believe that attacks involving incendiary devices on planes was the work of Russia’s military intelligence agency the GRU Western security officials suspect Russian intelligence was behind a plot to put incendiary devices in packages on cargo planes headed to North America, including one that caught fire at a courier hub in Germany and another that ignited in a warehouse in England. Poland last month said that it had arrested four people suspected to be linked to a foreign intelligence operation that carried out sabotage and was searching for two others. Lithuania’s prosecutor general Nida Grunskiene on Tuesday said that there were an unspecified number of people detained in several countries, offering no elaboration. The events come as Western officials say
Hundreds of thousands of Guyana citizens living at home and abroad would receive a payout of about US$478 each after the country announced it was distributing its “mind-boggling” oil wealth. The grant of 100,000 Guyanese dollars would be available to any citizen of the South American country aged 18 and older with a valid passport or identification card. Guyanese citizens who normally live abroad would be eligible, but must be in Guyana to collect the payment. The payout was originally planned as a 200,000 Guyanese dollar grant for each household in the country, but was reframed after concerns that some citizens, including
A plane bringing Israeli soccer supporters home from Amsterdam landed at Israel’s Ben Gurion airport on Friday after a night of violence that Israeli and Dutch officials condemned as “anti-Semitic.” Dutch police said 62 arrests were made in connection with the violence, which erupted after a UEFA Europa League soccer tie between Amsterdam club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv. Israeli flag carrier El Al said it was sending six planes to the Netherlands to bring the fans home, after the first flight carrying evacuees landed on Friday afternoon, the Israeli Airports Authority said. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also ordered
RSS