Ecuador’s National Assembly is on the verge of impeaching President Guillermo Lasso, whose administration is mired in allegations of corruption, including ties to organized crime, tax evasion, and corruption in the energy industry.
The potential impeachment comes as Ecuador faces increasing levels of violence and inequality under Lasso’s watch, which are arguably the greater driving forces behind the push to remove him from office, experts said. While the corruption allegations are serious and concerning, Lasso was deeply unpopular before those allegations gained traction, and for reasons that more intimately impact ordinary people’s lives.
It’s the second time that the National Assembly has attempted to remove Lasso from office since his term began in 2021. A previous attempt in June 2022 fell short of the 92 votes needed to end his presidency, motivated by “the serious political crisis and internal commotion” caused by weeks of protest against the increased cost of living and poverty in the South American nation.
Now, opposition lawmakers contend that Lasso is criminally negligent for failing to cancel a contract between FLOPEC, a state-run energy concern, and a private company, allowing the company to embezzle from FLOPEC. Lasso denies any wrongdoing.
In the face of his potential removal from power and what appears to be his diminishing control over the country, Lasso is attempting to shore up support from right-wing legislators and the Ecuadorean public, unsettled by the massive increase in violent crime, by projecting a tough-on-crime image.
These new policies could lay the groundwork for a crackdown should the impeachment outcome yield a popular uprising of the kind that generated last year’s impeachment proceedings, particularly given the potency and organizing power of CONAIE, the nation’s primary Indigenous rights organization.
Corruption charges are just the latest problem for Lasso
Lasso has pursued neoliberal policies, like…
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