QUITO, Ecuador (SONNA) — The president of Ecuador dismissed the legislature Wednesday in a move that promised more turmoil around a conservative leader who has been unable to enact a business-friendly agenda as the South American country experiences an alarming rise in crime.
In disbanding the National Assembly, Guillermo Lasso made the first use of the Ecuador presidency’s nuclear option under the constitution in conflicts with the legislative branch. His first move was to push a package of tax cuts, but criticism was swift and an appeal to stop him was filed hours after he announced his decision in a televised message in which he accused lawmakers of focusing “on destabilizing the government.”
“This is the best possible decision,” he said after describing his move as a way to give Ecuadorians “the power to decide their future in the next elections.”
Armed soldiers then surrounded the National Assembly in the capital. Lasso had been locked in a showdown with legislators who wanted to impeach him for not stopping a deal between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company, accusations he denies.
Hours later, the president of the National Electoral Council, Diana Atamaint, said that its office will set the date for the next elections in no more than seven days. She anticipated that Ecuadorians would go to the polls to elect a new president and a new Assembly in no more than 90 days.
Lasso’s Wednesday decision prompted Ecuador’s top military leader to warn that the armed forces would crack down on any violence.
The president appeared to have the support of the armed forces but faced opposition from Indigenous Ecuadorians. Protests by the powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities have nearly paralyzed the country in recent years, and the group’s leader appeared outraged.
Lasso “launched a cowardly self-coup with the help of the police and the armed forces, without citizen support,” Leonidas Iza Salazar said.
Source: AP
