• Ecuador Tortured and killed key businessman in the main scandal of the Lasso government
  • Political crisis Ecuador's foreign minister resigns

The countdown in the Ecuadorian National Assembly until the final vote that will decide if Guillermo Lasso is removed has just begun, but it already adds scandals and controversies. The Social Christian Party (PSC), a fundamental ally for the conservative president to triumph in the presidential elections of 2021, has denounced today that they have known for "some time" the alleged "pirate approach" by the ruling party to "acquire the votes of two assembly members" and thus save the political head of the former banker of Guayaquil.

"It's not a negotiation, it's corruption in two directions. One, which would constitute embezzlement, buying votes with public offices and budget items directed to third parties with state money. Another, as vile and immoral as the first, extort assembly members by taking away the security that protects them from criminal threats," denounced the PSC bench in Parliament. The PSC, which represents right-wing populism, has formed an unnatural alliance with former leftist President Rafael Correa's citizens' revolution to topple Lasso.

Lasso's former allies have not spared any dart against the president, "who boasts of being a neat and serious politician and will remain for what he is: an ambitious buyer and extortionist of assembly members."

Already in recent days Jaime Nebot, great leader of the PSC and former mayor of Guayaquil, announced that they will not back down in their siege against Lasso despite the fact that "we have prevented three times that they replace him. Lassus has made lying his daily activity."

After the verdict of the Constitutional Court to carry out the political trial against Lasso 40 days ahead, Lasso parked for the moment the option of decreeing cross death, a constitutional tool that allows him to dissolve Parliament and call elections in six months, presidential elections to which he could no longer run.

The government plan, as EL MUNDO learned, is based on convincing PSC deputies, former allies and ideologically close, so that they do not cause a historic turnaround in the Andean country. The opposition is enough to get 92 of 137 seats to end the presidency of Lasso, for which it also has the radical deputies of the indigenous party Pachakutik and the rebels of the Democratic Left. At the moment they have those 92 supports.

In fact, the controversial measure approved by the government to allow civilians to carry weapons, criticized inside and outside the country, has been interpreted as a nod to populists, who have applauded it.

"Believing that this solves violence is like believing that the rich are not going to steal. We will see how violent deaths evolve. I only ask you: Forbidden to forget!", attacked from abroad Correa, sentenced to eight years in prison for corruption and fugitive from Ecuadorian justice.

Meanwhile the problems accumulate for Lasso, who in recent days has lost his foreign minister, Juan Carlos Holguin, who accompanied him from day one. He has also forced the departure of Communications Secretary Andres Seminario, the fourth in his government.

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  • Ecuador
  • Rafael Correa

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