Assemblyman of Pachakutik assures that the report on the investigation of the Pandora Papers was altered

The final report on the Pandora Papers underwent modifications in the last second of its approval, since the initial agreement of the Pachakutik assembly members was to let the plenary decide, because there is not a single document that supports the first recommendation related to the failure of the President of the Republic to the Ethical Pact, defined in popular consultation in 2017.

It was revealed by the legislator Edgar Quezada of the Pachakutik movement and a member of the Constitutional Guarantees Commission that investigated Pandora’s papers and the alleged involvement of the president after the publication of a file leak that reveals ties of political figures with companies that own property or capital in tax havens.

Quezada spoke in the National Assembly, on the third day after having approved the report of the legislative commission, thereby distancing himself from the report that was approved last Friday with six votes, including him.

The other political sectors such as the Democratic Left, the Christian Social Party, the National Agreement Bank and independents question the report prepared by the legislative table for lack of constitutional support and announce that it will not have their support in the plenary session.

Legislative blocks sharpen political positions regarding the Pandora Papers report

The first recommendation that the legislator Quezada questions, states: “The non-observance by the President of the Republic of the Ethical Pact approved by the Popular Consultation in 2017 and the Organic Law of application of the Popular Consultation is verified, which constitutes the constitutional breach to the provisions of article 130.2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Ecuador, due to serious social upheaval and impact on the popular mandate over tax havens that facilitate structures that affect the economic and tax interests of the State and, consequently, the most vulnerable Ecuadorians ”.

Legislator Quezada stated that it is worrying that due to a last minute decision, because Pachakutik’s team in the Guarantees Commission decided other things, other things appear in the report, which draws attention, he noted.

Quezada explained that in the first call he voted for the report, but already in the ratification he abstained because he realized that in the last second two situations change that should not have changed, and that it was not agreed with the four members of Pachakutik, delegates at that legislative table.

It clarified that at no time was it agreed to include as a recommendation the alleged constitutional breach by the President of the Republic of the provisions of Article 130.2 of the Constitution of the Republic, where it is stated that the National Assembly can remove the President of the Republic for “serious political crisis and internal commotion.”

What was agreed, Quezada representative of Sucumbíos revealed, is that it is the plenary session of the Assembly that decides with the information of the Commission, because there is not a single document that reliably supports that recommendation.

Likewise, he said that a 20-day extension was requested, however, “overnight they decide that it is not necessary and that they have one hundred percent of the evidence as such, that makes the Commission run out of the necessary time to continue collecting the information that was expected from Panama, from other institutions and it was decided to issue the report.

For this reason, he added that in the part of the recommendations it is said that after the President of the Republic appears before the Assembly, the commission will hear the case again. That is also what was changed at the last second and what was not previously agreed upon as Pachakutik, he claimed.

He stated that prior to the report it was assessed that there was no justification for social upheaval, and therefore, it must be the same plenary session of the Assembly that must resolve such situation.

Quezada insisted to the press that number 1 of the recommendations of the report on the Pandora case was not included in the report prior to entering the session, and it was at the last second that the president of the Commission, José Cabascango ( Pachakutik).

He announced that they are going to evaluate in Pachakutik about what happened to Cabascango, which at the last minute changed the text of the recommendations without consulting the legislators of his caucus and who make up the table; therefore, it was a personal decision. “That should be answered by the president of the Commission,” he stressed.

He said that the bloc will meet to evaluate and make the decision collectively, and that this Tuesday, November 9, there will be a Pachakutik political council for that purpose.

Attempted destabilization

The coordinator of the National Agreement Bank (BAN), Juan Fernando Flores, said that not only are there doubts about the capacity of those who make up the Constitutional Guarantees commission, but there have been no doubts about what they are looking for what they are behind the report .

He affirmed that the correista bench, Unión por la Esperanza (UNES), intends through this document to seek the dismissal of the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, and that in front of this the ruling party is standing up to defend democracy..

“If they believed and pretended that the National Assembly is the space they are going to use to judge democracy in this country, they were wrong,” said Flores, who thanked blocs such as the Social Christian Party, the Democratic Left and a large majority of Assembly members of the Pachakutik bench for having joined the defense of the institutionality.

He stressed that Assemblyman Edgar Quezada himself, a member of the Guarantees Commission, denounces that the report that was initially going to be approved was altered.

Flores said that as a bench they will respond with the full weight of the law, because those who intend to commit crimes in this country and use the institutions to play at breaking democracy will have their answer.

The attempt to destabilize democracy has been clear on the part of the UNES bench, and not only because of a report that tries to demonstrate something that they themselves were able to demonstrate, said Flores, but a few minutes after the report was approved they released a pre-video recorded where it was said that the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, should step aside and the interlocutor of that video is the fugitive from Ecuadorian justice, Rafael Correa DelgadoTherefore, there is an intention to generate instability, he pointed out.

He said that once the plenary session of the Assembly is called to know the report, the ruling party will ask that the minority report be known where it is shown that there is no element or evidence that can prove any relationship of the president with Pandora Papers, but especially that this report be filed, with which it will be established that the National Assembly is not responsible for dealing with this, but rather the Office of the Comptroller and General Prosecutor of the State that have already started processes.(I)