The President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, did not commit the alleged criminal offense of embezzlement established in Paragraph 2 of Article 129 of the Constitution, therefore impeachment of the President is not recommended.

This is the recommendation made in the reasoned draft report to be presented by the president of the Supervisory Commission, Fernando Villavicencio, in connection with the impeachment request launched by four legislators from the Union for Hope (UNES), the Social Christian Party (PSC) and two allies who accused president for the alleged criminal offense of embezzlement during the signing of the oil transportation contract between Flopec EP and Amazonas Tankers Pool.

After contributing and appearing in the presentation of evidence, it was confirmed that there was no execution of the said contract during the administration of President Guillermo Lasso, according to the draft report on 278 pages, which includes a significant part of the opinion on the admissibility of the Constitutional Court on the request for trial, statements and documentation attached in procedure.

The outcome of the political trial of President Guillermo Lasso is causing anxiety and nervousness among lawmakers

The conclusions of the report state that political responsibility for embezzlement could not be established for the alleged state damage to the Constitutional President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, related to the mentioned special review of the State Comptroller General, because there was no celebration of new contracts between Flopec EP and Amazonas Tankers Pool during administration of President Lasso.

In this sense, it cannot be said that the impeachment request related to the charges accepted by the Constitutional Court has such “narrative coherence” described in number 91 because there is no signing of such a new contract and therefore what establishes number 92 is the same opinion that describes this fact as: “the network of factual conclusions is minimally probable. Regarding, specifically, the minimum credibility of the participation of the President of the Republic in the accused facts (…)” were distorted by the conducted and collected evidence that does not show any truth.

This draft report will be included in the invitation that will be sent today by the President of the Supervisory Commission, Fernando Villavicencio, to the meeting that will be held this Saturday, May 6.

The document will then be forwarded to the President of the National Assembly, Virgilio Saquicel, for him to proceed as provided for in Article 92 of the Organic Law of the Legislature, which refers to the deadlines that must be respected for the distribution of the report among legislators and the subsequent invitation to a plenary session for familiarization, discussions and solutions.

This impeachment process began on March 16 when the legislators: Viviana Veloz (UNES), Mireya Pazmiño (split from Pachakutik), Pedro Zapata (PSC) and Rodrijo Fajardo (split from ID), with the support of 59 signatures, presented a request to try the president for his alleged earthquake crime brain and embezzlement; and after certain adjustments, on March 24, the Legislative-Administrative Council accepted the document for processing and forwarded it to the Constitutional Court for review and opinion.

The Constitutional Court, with six votes, accepted the request for the cancellation of the third charge, which refers to the criminal offense of embezzlement, and determined that in the cancellation procedure, the first and second consideration of the facts, conclusions and evidence related to the charge, as well as what is contained in section eight of the request entitled “Other indications that violate the principle of trust”.

Report of findings

There are eleven conclusions of the explained draft report on the impeachment that will be heard by members of the Supervisory Committee.