Nine assembly members of Pachakutik declare in absentia and mark total autonomy from the government of Guillermo Lasso

Seven months after the current National Assembly was installed, the legislative bench of the Pachakutik movement was divided into two groups. The self-proclaimed rebels who agree more with the guidelines of the Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities of Ecuador (Conaie), led by Leonidas Iza, and those who show openness to dialogue with the Government and are coordinated by Assemblyman Rafael Lucero.

The internal power struggle became evident on December 15, when nine legislators summoned the press to warn that from now on they constitute a parliamentary group, that they will be the voice of social organizations and that they will not lend themselves to any type of blackmail and agreements that imply going against popular interests, and declared total autonomy before the government of Guillermo Lasso.

On the list of the nine assembly members are Mario Ruiz (Imbabura), Darwin Pereira (El Oro), Patricia Sánchez and Salvador Quishpe (national), Mireya Pazmiño (Bolívar), Joel Abad (Cañar), Peter Calo (Cotopaxi), José Cabascango (Pichincha) and Salvador Maita (outside).

That political organization came to the Legislature with 25 assembly members, but since yesterday the group of nine emerged that says they will not leave the bench, that they will remain attached to the guidelines of the Conaie.

This political sector questions Lucero’s coordination, and even tried to change leadership on December 14, but did not obtain support.

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For Lucero, this group of legislators has their own agenda and electoral interests, since he said that they are offering candidates for the next elections, that they always tried to impose their interests on the projects under debate and strong decisions of the Assembly, but that they have not had a place.

Ruiz said that Pachakutik cannot be in lukewarm positions. “Either we are with the workers, farmers, with the transporters, honest businessmen, students and producers, or we are with the bankers, the owners of the foreign debt bonds, with the transnational companies or the political elites that have resources in tax havens. ”.

One of the first clarifications made by that group that declared itself in absentia in front of Lucero’s coordination is that they demarcate any responsibility for the votes that had been presented within the Assembly as the one registered in the tax reform.

Calo began to question the way Lucero is leading the legislative bloc. “We will respond to our mother organization, Conaie, and its organizational structures and to our Pachakutik leaderships in each of the provinces,” he clarified.

He stated that he belongs to the group of convinced legislators, who will never betray the historical struggle, and who will never walk with a “neoliberal, privatizing and oppressive government.”

Pereira insisted that this group of legislators does not assume any political responsibility regarding the votes that have taken place in the plenary session, that it has nothing to do with the Pachakutik project, which will never be there to vote for laws that harm the people and the people who voted for them.

That rejects the position assumed by some assembly members who allowed the tax reform to become a reality, but that this group of legislators will try to overturn the law that establishes new taxes and for this they presented a bill to repeal the Economic Development and Sustainability law. Prosecutor, and will also seek that the Constitutional Court declares it unconstitutional.

He invited the national leadership of Pachakutik to take the reins of the political organization, “because it cannot be that people believe that it is the entire Pachakutik bloc that is surrendered to the Government.”

The action carried out by the nine assembly members, according to Pereira, is a desperate cry to the national leadership and the bases of the movement to take the reins of the political organization, and because they do not agree with some votes in the plenary session, and that that It includes the president of the Assembly, Guadalupe Llori, although it could be understood from her why she has to open channels of dialogue, but not because she votes in a certain way, the 25 legislators have to vote in the same way, he replied.

Meanwhile, Lucero revealed that, two months ago, the group of nine legislators sought to obtain control of the bench and for this they exhausted all efforts led by Assemblyman Mario Ruiz.

He assured that this group has its own personal political interests, that there is no proof that the bloc coordinated by Lucero is aligned with the Government. What there is evidence of is that there has been dialogue with all sectors, such as UNES, the Government, the Democratic Left and the Christian Social Party, and many times they have voted together, he noted.

That all this is summarized in that the group of nine legislators wants to impose their thesis and that is not going to fall.

Lucero said that he respects the leadership of Conaie, but that today he has become one more political actor, it is not the organization of years ago.

That Conaie is not working according to the social line it has, but is becoming one more political actor, and that affects what the nine assembly members who declared in absentia against the coordination of the bloc are proposing.

He assured that the Pachakutik parliamentary group is discussing a political agenda for the upcoming elections, because they are offering candidacies and are working for that.

That the whole country knows that Leonidas Iza is seeking to be a candidate for the Presidency of the Republic, however, that when there was already another candidate like Yaku Pérez, in the last elections, he aligned himself with another political sector and that is public.

The disciplinary decision will be a decision of the Pachakutik national executive committee, and Marlon Santi will call a political council, Lucero warned. (I)