The president of the National Assembly (Parliament) of Ecuador, Virgilio Saquicela, convened a session for this Saturday (25th) that will have as the only item on the agenda the debate on a request for the impeachment of the president of the country, Guillermo Lasso.
The summons was made on Friday night (24) at the request of at least a third of parliamentarians, who allege a serious national situation due to the wave of protests against the high cost of living and the government’s economic policies.
The activation of the presidential impeachment procedure had already been anticipated this Friday by a group of members of the Assembly linked to former President Rafael Correa and by a sector of the Pachakutik movement, the political arm of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), the main protest organization.
The session, at the Assembly’s headquarters, will take place a short distance from El Arbolito park, which for two days has been the scene of an almost constant confrontation between protesters and security forces.
The organic law of the Assembly requires that the session to debate the impeachment be convened within 24 hours of the presentation of the request, and the president himself was also summoned to present his arguments.
After the debate, Parliament has 72 hours to vote on whether to continue the president. For the impeachment to proceed, the votes of at least two-thirds of congressmen – 92 of the 137 members – are required.
If the process takes place, the vice president would assume the presidency, and the National Electoral Council (CNE), within seven days of the publication of the resolution, would call early legislative and presidential elections.
In a speech to the nation broadcast on television and on social networks, Lasso on Friday denounced an attempted coup promoted by the leaders of the protests and called on “the international community to warn about this attempt to destabilize democracy in Ecuador”.
The president accused the president of Conaie, Leonidas Iza, of seeking “the overthrow of the government”.
Twelve days of protests
The protests began on June 13, convened mainly by Conaie, although other peasant organizations, unions and student federations also joined.
The indigenous movement wants the government to comply with a list of ten demands, including that fuel prices be reduced and frozen, that prices for basic necessities be controlled, that state-owned companies not be privatized and that oil and mining activities in the Amazon is not expanded.
So far, the mobilization has left five people dead and at least 200 injured among protesters and members of the security forces.
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