“I can tell the entire country that I visited the 24 provinces, I did it through my department called Your Council in the Territory, I went to the Galapagos to publicize the rights of citizen participation,” says María Fernanda Rivadeneira. Cuzco, vice president of the Council for Citizen Participation and Social Control (CPCCS) and candidate for re-election in the February 5 elections.
Lawyer and Master in Constitutional Law, Rivadeneira joined the CPCCS in 2019, the year in which this entity was formed with members elected at the polls. The previous transitory Council had been made up of individuals named from a shortlist of the Presidency of the Republic. In November, she was among the councilors removed by the Assembly and then reinstated by court order.
“Nobody defends a right they don’t know about, citizens don’t know about the participation processes, they don’t know that through complaints of corruption, the CPCCS becomes a party to those complaints,” says this 36-year-old from Portovejense, a professional mediator and activist. for women’s rights. In her achievements, she mentions the creation of the first observatory to monitor the Law to Eradicate Violence Against Women, which is present in 14 cities.
“I have been an activist for more than 17 years, I have proven to be transparent in my actions and decisions, that there is much to do, of course,” said the candidate, who was sponsored by the Manabí Bar Association in her first election, but this time he does it -he says- for the citizenship.
On leave without pay since January 3, María Fernanda Rivadeneira criticizes the interference of political parties in the CPCCS. “We have had to see how the partisan powers want to storm the designation of authorities, what they have always wanted is to have 100% impunity. In the Comptroller’s Office, the parties want their mayors, their prefects, that the people of their party not be audited, and in the Council of the Judiciary they also have their eyes on it, because with justice they want there to be impunity”, explains the candidate who reported a net worth of $441,488 in 2021, the year in which he paid $2,365 in taxes.
Within its work plan, Rivadeneira offers to promote that the reports on acts of corruption prepared by the CPCCS have binding quality, because currently the investigation carried out by this body is received at the Prosecutor’s Office like any complaint and it begins to investigate from scratch. “What the Council does not have is that its reports are binding for the Prosecutor’s Office or the Comptroller’s Office, they are only reports, something informative, it does not have binding quality to which the prosecutor can avail himself of to request the accusatory opinion and that with that the trial begins as such”, explains the official, who has been a lawyer for the Attorney General’s Office and a lawyer for the IESS Coactiva in Manabí.
“The Council has been a great space where I have been able to learn that the country needs people committed to national interests, it is a great, noble institution that one comes to love because of its connection with the community,” says the candidate. (YO)
Source: Eluniverso
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