Ecuador: Guillermo Lasso has confirmed he will face impeachment, although he may dissolve Congress

The president of Ecuador, William Lassohe assured that he will face impeachment before Parliament, which accuses him of alleged embezzlement, as a first option, despite the fact that the Constitution authorizes him to dissolve Congress.

The right-wing president said on Sunday evening in an interview with the Ecuavisa television channel that he will participate in the process approved by the Constitutional Court “because it is my obligation put your face in front of people“.

“I couldn’t dictate ‘cross-death’ by leaving the question of what was really going to happen with the impeachment because I’m a Democrat, because I’ve put my chest under bullets in all areas of my life,” he added.

The so-called ‘cross death’ refers to presidential power dissolve the National Assembly kick off early general elections to complete the four-year constitutional period.

“I wouldn’t want the pages of history to write that I dictated a ‘cross death’ to avoid impeachment. I’m not avoiding impeachment, I’m going to the Assembly,” said Lasso, 67.

The Constitutional Court authorized the trial last Wednesday lifted by 104 of 137 members of Congress. For the removal of the ruler are needed 92 votes (two-thirds).

Lasso argued that “it is intended to censure a President of the Republic without these facts they went through justice ordinary and there is a final sentence, where a judge said that there is embezzlement,” said Lasso.

The president is accused of embezzlement the management of the state-owned Ecuadorian oil fleet (Flopec) through contracts concluded between 2018 and 2020, before taking office in May 2021.

Lasso, who defends his innocence, is confident he will succeed in the trial, for which Congress has not yet set a date.

“I want the assembly members who have decency, who are there, those assembly members who have been deceived with false information or omission of information, to reflect and reconsider for the good of Ecuador, for the stability of the country,” he said.

He considered that Ecuadorian democracy is threatened by drug traffickingwith whom he has a war.

“I have the integrity and steadfastness to show Ecuador once and for all the truth: the link between drug mafias and corruption with some members of the assembly who put themselves at the service of these mafias“, he narrowed.

Even the ruler called “conspiracy triumvirs” former socialist president Rafael Correa (2007-2017), former right-wing mayor of Guayaquil (Southwest), Jaime Nebot, and the top leader of the powerful and main indigenous organization minersLeonidas Iza.

Despite the fact that Nebot supported his candidacy, Lasso he considers him a detractor along with Correa (who lives in Belgium) and Iza, who has led massive protests against his administration.

Agencies