Ecuador’s Guillermo Lasso dissolves congress, avoiding impeachment
The country’s largest Indigenous federation, a powerful movement credited with toppling three previous Ecuadoran presidents, had previously vowed to launch mass protests in response. As of Wednesday morning, legislators were unable to enter the National Assembly, which was blocked by the military and police.
Lasso is applying a constitutional mechanism known as a muerte cruzada — roughly, “mutual death” — due to the “grave political crisis and social unrest” in the country, he wrote in a decree.
It’s a drastic step, allowing him to shut down the legislature while setting him on a path to give up office in about six months. He can, however, run as a candidate in the election.
“A political crisis is being faced, as there is uncertainty about the ability of state bodies to perform their functions properly,” he said in a statement.
The move, a presidential order, is effective immediately and does not require court approval. The decree, issued just days before lawmakers were expected to vote on whether to remove him, gives Lasso a final political lifeline. He had said he would apply the muerte cruzada if the votes appeared to be stacked against him.
“They have stretched the limits of the human imagination,” Lasso said in a speech to lawmakers Tuesday at the start of his impeachment trial. “They have created a fictitious situation that does not solve the problems of the people or anyone else.”
The country’s top military leaders, historically important arbitrators during political crises, have vowed to back Lasso and maintain order. Brigadier General Nelson Bolívar Proaño Rodríguez, head of the armed forces joint command, said in a video statement Wednesday the president’s decree “should be respected by all citizens.”
Rafael Correa, the leftist former president who remains a powerful force in the country’s politics, described Lasso’s move as “illegal,” despite the fact that the muerte cruzada clause was written into the constitution during his presidency. Correa, Ecuador’s longest-serving democratically elected president, said Lasso’s decision had nothing to do with a political crisis in the country, but rather his impeachment trial.
“In any case, it is the great opportunity to send home Lasso, his government and his legislators,” Correa tweeted.
Lasso, a 67-year-old former banker, was elected in April 2021 on a free-market platform, defeating a protege of Correa. But when Lasso took office, the country was struggling to recover economically from the pandemic and drug traffickers were gaining control in many cities.
Ecuadoran gangs, many working with Mexican cartels, have unleashed a wave of violent crime in the country’s streets and prisons, wreaking havoc never before seen in the historically peaceful country. Neighborhoods in Esmeraldas and Guayaquil have been terrorized by car bombs, explosives and killings.
On Monday, the mayor of Durán, a town outside Guayaquil, was apparently targeted for assassination. Unknown gunmen opened fire on his motorcade; three people were killed and three wounded.
Lasso is seen by many here as out of touch with the population; his approval ratings have dropped in recent months to the teens. He has also struggled with frequent illness and has been unable to push forward much of his legislation in a national assembly dominated by his opponents. Of the seven bills he has introduced, only three have been approved.
Lasso was the first president to face an impeachment trial since the country’s return to democracy in 1979. The proceedings opened on Tuesday. He denied wrongdoing; he accused opponents of inventing unfounded allegations against him for political reasons.
Four lawmakers had filed a petition for impeachment with Ecuador’s constitutional court, accusing the president of improperly handling state contracts for oil transportation with a private company. They say his decisions led to the loss of millions of dollars in public funds, and that he was aware of it.
A legislative oversight commission concluded last week that there was no evidence to show that Lasso knew about the contracts and that he did not promote signing a new deal with the private company. The commission recommended against impeaching him.
Fernando Villavicencio, a member of the legislative oversight commission, told The Washington Post that Lasso made the decision last night despite believing he had enough votes to avoid his removal. The president made the call in part because of a “conspiracy” between Correa’s party and the right-wing Social Christian party to block his proposed legislation, Villavicencio said.
“They were not going to allow Lasso to advance in any reform,” Villavicencio said. “The president understood that it was not just about saving him.”
Leonidas Iza, the leftist leader of the country’s largest Indigenous organization, said the group’s leaders would be meeting to discuss how to respond. His organization helped lead large protests last year that paralyzed Ecuador’s capital.
“Not having the necessary votes to save himself from his imminent dismissal, Lasso launched a cowardly self-coup with the help of the Police and the Armed Forces, without citizen support, becoming an imminent dictatorship,” Iza said Wednesday in a tweet.
Ecuadoran political scientist Francisco Sánchez, director of the Ibero-American Institute at the University of Salamanca, described Lasso’s executive order as the “best possible exit from the political crisis.”
“The president and the current congress had reached a confrontation in which no type of law could be approved,” he said. “The country was in total paralysis.”
Some sectors fear Lasso will govern through total constitutional control to promote his free-market policies and plans for privatization, Sánchez said.
He predicted Lasso would want to run as a candidate in the coming election. He expects Correa’s party to capitalize on the moment, particularly after strong performances in municipal elections earlier this year.
Simón Pachano, a political scientist at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences in Ecuador, said the muerte cruzada was the “least traumatic” outcome for economic and political stability. Had Lasso been impeached, the country would have been governed by a vice president with no political experience.
“Now, he is forced to make a turn in his government, to make significant changes,” Pachano said, “And he can do it. He practically holds all of the powers.”
Schmidt and Durán reported from Bogotá, Colombia.
