Guillermo Lasso at a rally this Wednesday in Costa Rica MAYELA LOPEZ (REUTERS)
The Legislative Commission, which spent three weeks investigating an alleged case of corruption and alleged ties between people close to Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso and drug-crime groups, recommended on Wednesday that the president be tried for attacking the state security and bribery. provided for in the Ecuadorian constitution.
The group of parliamentarians, mainly formed by the opposition, approved the document, which they nicknamed “The Great Godfather”, with six votes in favor and one against. The initiative grew out of a 2021 report by the Ecuadorian Anti-Drug Police, titled León Troya, in which it investigated an alleged relationship between Albanian drug trafficker Dritan Gjika and Rubén Cherres, a close friend of Danilo Carrera, President Laço’s brother-in-law. -law.
In the more than nine-hour session, the parliamentarians argued that the alleged irregularities they found were part of the crime of “treason for attacking state security”. However, at the end of the interventions there was a motion to change it, and they ended the “treason” to accuse the president of “attack on state security”.
This was allegedly done in the form of omission which President Lasso allegedly assumed “to protect his brother-in-law”. According to members of the congregation, he learned of the police report prepared at the request of former anti-drug director Geovanny Ponce, one of the generals whose resignation was requested by the president following the September 11, 2022 femicide of lawyer María Belén Bernal at the police academy. however, reversed this decision and left Ponce in office.
The commission also connects Lasso with “crimes such as organized crime, extortion, bribery, embezzlement, illicit enrichment, influence peddling, procedural fraud and obstruction of justice” for appointing officials who were directors of public companies. who plotted an alleged network of corruption, charged bribes from millionaires in exchange for contracts and also gained influence in the appointment of ministers and government officials. “An institutional framework for corruption has been designed,” said deputy Viviana Veloz, chair of the commission.
The report was not approved unanimously, Rep. Gruber Zambrano, who presented a minority document – which was not discussed – voted against the president’s motion of censure, assuring that the approved report “is already done”. “I don’t know where this comes from, they want to overthrow this government for partisan, personal and economic interests,” he added.
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Government Minister Henry Cucalón described the contents of the report as “a tome, a document without head or tail, without legal value”. The commission’s report is not binding and the continuation of Lasso’s trial, which could take about a month, will require the approval of various bodies of the National Assembly and will be submitted to the Constitutional Court, which will analyze whether the constitutional requirements are met. if the causes are justified. If it has the approval of the court, it will return to the plenary, which needs the approval of at least 92 of the 137 parliamentarians to censor and impeach the president of the republic.
Source: La Neta Neta
Karen Clayton is a seasoned journalist and author at The Nation Update, with a focus on world news and current events. She has a background in international relations, which gives her a deep understanding of the political, economic and social factors that shape the global landscape. She writes about a wide range of topics, including conflicts, political upheavals, and economic trends, as well as humanitarian crisis and human rights issues.
