The Chief Executive invites the members of the commission to Carondelet once the appearances in the National Assembly have concluded
The President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, will not attend this October 20 the Guarantees and Human Rights Commission of the National Assembly that investigates the Pandora Papers, but in a letter sent to the president of the table, José Cabascango (Pachakutik), It confirms that it is not related to trusts in tax havens and invites the legislators to the Carondelet Palace.
Guillermo Lasso’s appearance was scheduled for today at 3:00 p.m. The Chief Executive emphasizes that the Assembly does not have competence to investigate these issues but the State Comptroller’s Office, however, invites the members of the commission to the Carondelet Palace.
In the morning, his wife, María de Lourdes Alcívar and his son, Santiago Xavier Lasso, were summoned, but they did not attend, stating that they were not obliged to appear because they are not public officials.
First Lady and her son Santiago Lasso delegate their lawyer to answer about the pandora papers
In the letter he reiterates that all his income has been from Ecuadorian source and has been declared in Ecuador, where he has passed the taxes of the Law.
He clarifies that he has not received any income from abroad, therefore, he discards any suggestion that he had not fully paid all his taxes.
That in the last fifteen years, between the Guayaquil bank, the Multibg SA Corporation, the GLM Trust and he has jointly paid the sum of $ 588’864,479.38 for taxes and contributions.
Regarding the questions contained in the request for information, the Chief Executive points out that it is very clear that the commission has initiated an investigation aimed at determining whether when registering his presidential candidacy he was the direct or indirect owner of goods or capital of any nature, in jurisdictions or regimes considered as tax havens or managerial in companies incorporated or domiciled in such jurisdictions, since that is what article 4 of the Organic Law for the Application of the Popular Consultation carried out on February 19, 2017, issued with “clear dedication against me, incidentally, “he says.
Guillermo Lasso Mendoza, in the official letter sent to the Guarantees Commission, reiterates that neither when registering his presidential candidacy, nor since then until today, has he been involved in the aforementioned prohibition.
In addition, it indicates that in the journalistic note that appeared in the newspaper El Universo, it expressly acknowledges that the entities Bernini Foundation, Bretten Holdings, Da Vinci Foundation, Fundación Bienes Raíces, Nora Group Investment Corp., Pietro Overseas SA, Positano Trade LLC and Tintoretto Internacional Foundation , were legally dissolved in the past, and that nobody has contradicted was reality.
Regarding the Panamanian bank Banisi and the US trusts Bretten Trust and Liberty Trust, the Chief Executive confirms that it has no ownership or management relationship.
In the official letter sent to the legislature, Guillermo Lasso, warns that the plenary session of the National Assembly resolved to carry out an investigation related to the pandora papers, given an alleged “serious social upheaval”, language at the discretion of the Head of State tries to bypass the Legally established procedure to dismiss officials who fail to comply with the Organic Law for the Application of the Popular Consultation of February 19, 2017.
That the response it sends, adds the document, is to contribute to the investigation that is being carried out, but “I expressly state that neither the National Assembly nor the Commission are the competent bodies to investigate the causes related to breaches of the aforementioned Law” .
That on the contrary, the aforementioned Law, in its article 9, grants exclusive jurisdiction in these matters to the General Comptroller of the State, an entity that at the request of the Chief Executive Officer has already initiated an investigation, in which it will provide all the relevant discharges, given that there has been granted an evidentiary term that is commensurate with the seriousness of this matter and due process.
In addition, it maintains that if the State Comptroller’s Office were to consider that there is grounds for dismissal of the President of the Republic, it must send the file to the Constitutional Court for it to confirm or reject such pronouncement. And only “the ratifying resolution of the Constitutional Court will serve for the plenary session of the National Assembly to adopt the corresponding decision in accordance with the Law.”
Despite the exclusive competence of the Comptroller, the Head of State in his letter, sent to the Constitutional Guarantees Commission of the legislature, confirms his availability to receive the members of the commission in the Presidential Palace, but once they have evacuated all the appearances foreseen in the work schedule, since it indicates that it has the full right to know in advance the assertions that have been given in said forum.
The President of the Republic, Guillermo Lasso, reminded the legislative commission that on the occasion of the registration of his candidacy for the Presidency of the Republic, an accusation regarding an alleged and non-existent breach of the Law was already known and resolved in the electoral dispute headquarters. Organic for the Application of the Popular Consultation of February 19, 2017, an accusation that was forcefully and definitively rejected, so that in the present case there is res judicata. (I)
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