The president of Ecuador, Guillermo Lasso, was at the National Assembly of Ecuador this Tuesday (16) to present his defense in an impeachment process that is being processed in the house and said that the opposition deputies who presented the request “demonstrated an unparalleled inventiveness ”. He called the allegation “absurd”.
“They created a fictitious situation that does not solve the people’s problems,” said Lasso, according to information from the newspaper El Universo. “I came here to say this to my accusers: I accuse them of having abandoned their role as legislators. Now you are anti-lawmakers.”
Last week, the plenary of the National Assembly of Ecuador approved the opening of an impeachment process against Lasso.
The approved text accuses him of responsibility for the diversion of resources at the state-owned oil transport company Flopec EP because he and Hernán Luque Lecaro, former president of the Empresa Coordinadora de Empresas Públicas, would have determined the continuity of a ship charter contract with the company Amazonas Tanker, “aware that they represented losses for the State”.
This Tuesday, Lasso said that the contract in question, an amendment and a report by the Ecuadorian government’s Comptroller that pointed out irregularities were related to a process that took place three years before the start of his term.
The president also argued that the Comptroller’s report made 13 recommendations on the contract signed in 2018 and that all of them were implemented during his government “to the letter”. Furthermore, the document did not recommend terminating the contract, Lasso pointed out.
The impeachment process against the president of Ecuador should be voted on Saturday (20) by the National Assembly.
In June of last year, Lasso was the target of major protests and an impeachment process called by parliamentarians allied with former president Rafael Correa (2007-2017) and linked to indigenous movements did not go ahead because there were only 12 votes left.
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