Ecuador: Pres. Lasso Dissolves Congress, Calls for Elections

Facts

• Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso on Wednesday announced the unprecedented triggering of a constitutional "mutual death" clause to dissolve the legislature and call for snap general elections, which will take place in the coming months.¹
• Following the dissolution of the opposition-led National Assembly, Ecuador's influential confederation of Indigenous groups has deemed the order "dictatorial."²
• Ecuador's military, however, vowed not to tolerate violent unrest, recognizing the legitimacy of the move that will allow Lasso to govern the country by decree for up to six months until new elections are held.³
• This presidential order, which took effect immediately, comes as the embattled conservative leader became the first president to face an impeachment trial since the country's return to democracy in 1979.⁴
• Impeachment proceedings began Tuesday as a majority of lawmakers supported a motion stating that he overlooked alleged embezzlement related to oil shipping contracts despite a congressional oversight committee not recommending to pursue the charge.⁵
• Lasso, who took office in 2021, has been facing growing calls for his resignation in recent months, with the opposition and indigenous organizations accusing him of negligence amid a cost-of-living crisis and mounting criminal violence.⁶

Sources: ¹FT, ²BBC News, ³Wall Street Journal, ⁴Washington Post, ⁵Al Jazeera, and ⁶CNN.

Narratives

• Left narrative, as provided by TeleSUR English. Lasso has illegally prevented himself from being impeached in the coming days but, by doing so, he is offering a golden opportunity for the Ecuadorian people to vote him out of office, recover the country, and lower tensions. While he will be able to govern by decree for six months without the legislative checks and balances, the law does not allow Lasso to do anything he wants. This is an authoritarian move by Lasso, but there's a pathway toward a brighter future.
• Right narrative, as provided by Breitbart. Despite claims that this is an illegal order, it was the radical leftist authoritarian Rafael Correa who enshrined Article 148, which requires only an executive order to trigger this move, in the constitution. This decree is justifiable as the opposition camp has long sought to drag Ecuador into a political crisis to depose the democratically elected government, fueling unrest and activating 14 impeachment trials.