National Assembly defines itself in front of the report on Pandora’s papers

The National Assembly plans to reinstall this Tuesday from 3:30 p.m. to open the debate and then approve a resolution regarding the report prepared by the Constitutional Guarantees Commission regarding the investigation carried out into the case called Pandora Papers.

The majority report contained in 291 pages indicates that the President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, did not observe the ethical pact approved in popular consultation of 2017, for which the breach indicated in paragraph 2 of article 130 of the Constitution is configured, and recommends his dismissal due to serious political crisis and internal commotion.

This ground for dismissal indicated in the report approved by six votes does not have the sufficient support of votes in the plenary to be collected and supported in a resolution. Only, the correista legislative bloc, represented in the Union for Hope (UNES) bench, insists on applying the dismissal of Lasso.

On December 2, the plenary session of the legislature read the content of the text, but the debate was suspended for this Tuesday, which will conclude with the approval of a resolution.

Assembly postpones one more week the debate and vote on the Pandora Papers report appointing President Guillermo Lasso

However, there are banks like Pachakutik that analyze and try to coincide with other political sectors in a resolution that approves the majority report signed by legislator José Cabascango, from their ranks, but that the first related recommendation is set aside. with the removal of Lasso.

For this reason, this group of 25 legislators hopes to ask that the recommendations be changed, among them, that the entire investigation be sent in its entirety to the State Attorney General’s Office to investigate whether or not there are financial crimes on the part of the president of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, and his family, revealed the national assemblyman Ricardo Vanegas.

That the Office of the Comptroller General of the State conclude the investigation it initiated to determine whether or not the head of state failed to comply with what is determined by the 2017 Popular Consultation Law, that is, if he really had or continues to have capital in tax havens .

Likewise, this group of legislators hopes to obtain the votes to order that President Guillermo Lasso, as the country’s first public official, appear before the plenary session of the National Assembly to render accounts and clarify whether or not he has assets or capital in tax havens. or his family, Vanegas said.

This position analyzed by Pachakutik could be supported by 48 votes that UNES has, as anticipated by legislator Ronny Aleaga, who warned that apparently the request for approval of the report will not be made by the president of the table, José Cabascango, so The possibility that it comes from the correista legislator Paola Cabezas is being analyzed.

He said that there are many legislators who do not want to support the report because it includes the grounds for dismissal of the president, and in response to that, there will be a motion from Pachakutik that would pick up the report, but without the first recommendation.

Although the questions made by the assembly member of Pachakutik Édgar Quezada persist, who denounced that minutes before the vote on the report the document was altered, because it did not include the main recommendation on the dismissal of Lasso. This complaint is the subject of a tax inquiry.

In other sectors such as the Social Christian Party, their position regarding the Pandora Papers report has not changed, said the coordinator of that bench, Esteban Torres, so they will not support the text presented by the table chaired by Pachakutik, because if the report is analyzed, it refers in several parts to an alleged internal commotion. That ground is not applicable in this case, he stressed.

“If Correísmo wants, to wash its face of the alleged pacts and go to extremes, we will not support it, and we will not support a minority report that seeks to absolve with holy water any conduct that may be susceptible to being investigated by the Comptroller and Prosecutor’s Office ”.

From the official sector, represented in the National Agreement Bank (BAN), they aspire that the plenary session treat the minority report presented by legislators Virgilio Saquicela and Gruber Zambrano, in which they recommend the case file and that the entire file be forwarded to the Comptroller and Prosecutor’s Office as competent bodies for the investigation. (I)