From constitutionalists to border mayors have criticized resolutions of the national COE on the pandemic

The productive sector, guilds of doctorslawyers constitutionalists and border officials criticize some decisions taken by the Emergency Operations Committee (COE) national regarding the management of the pandemic produced by COVID-19 in Ecuador.

The business world has been one of the sectors that has questioned the resolutions taken by the national COE, such as that of including several cantons of the country at a red epidemiological traffic light. For Carlos Loaiza, president of the Quito Chamber of Commerce (CCQ), it has generated mistrust.

Between the measures that companies they believe necessary to alleviate the impacts of the restrictions and effects of COVID on the economy are emergency lines of credit, reduction in payments rates and taxes, take care of your liquidity, payment facilities for your obligations.

This is supported by a perception of the members of the CCQ about business expectations 2022 after a survey applied to 380 businesses between January 19 and 26 of this year.

For those not vaccinated against COVID-19, the option to enter Ecuador is a negative PCR test result

Another guild that has joined in criticism is that of the Pichincha College of Physicians. According to the president of the union, Víctor Álvarez, there was “political pressure” that was exerted to get the national COE to back down and allow the public to enter the party due to the qualifiers between Ecuador and Brazil which was held on January 27, 2022, in Quito.

For Alvarez, the COE lost credibility. He added that there has been a disavowal of both the Executive Power and the Judicial Power to their resolutions.

“This creates a bad precedent in which use protective actions to dismantle or delegitimize or suspend all those actions,” said the doctor.

According Andre Benavides, attorney constitutionalist, The national COE was created through the regulation of the Public and State Security Law, so does not have an origin by law or presidential decree.

“We see that the attributions and powers that it has are not clearly defined and in the march it was made to believe that it had powers to handle the pandemic and obviously it is not like that (…), those decisions They do not have any kind of legal effect. They are not binding and they are not mandatory.

The jurist maintained that some of the resolutions of the COE have been dismissed by the justice in reference, for example, to the emelec football match, that after a court ruling allowed the public to attend, on Wednesday, February 9, 2022, at its stadium.

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Another of the COE resolutions that was not well received was the reopening of the Rumichaca international bridge, border with Colombia, on a date that had not been established.

The reopening of the Rumichaca bridge with that nation was scheduled for December 15 gradually, but the December 17, the COE ordered the immediate and total reopening.

For Cristian Benavides, Mayor of Tulcanthe way in which the national COE assumed the reopening of the Rumichaca bridge was worrying because they had been told that it was going to be progressiveorderly and with biosecurity protocols.

He affirmed that none of this happened, there was a rush and that municipality was not taken into account in the decision, although he acknowledged that there was no growth in hospital admissions.

According to the official, the resolution was applied when there was a reactivation process economy on the eve of Christmas, but with actions such as fairs, concerts and the persuasion of low prices, local commerce was not affected.

Juan Zapata, president of the national COE, responded to criticism in an interview with this newspaper. He also cited a survey of the organization’s management.

According to an investigation by the ClickResearch Company, that conducts market research, from January 2022, the qualification to the management of the National COE was 42.78%, surpassed by the National Police that was qualified with 45.56%, that of President Guillermo Lasso with 51.81% and the Armed Forces with 64.22%.

According to the technical sheet of that polling firm, 760 surveys: 380 in Quito and 380 in Guayaquil.

“Despite the fact that we make decisions that are complicated for many (…), I think there is also a great citizenship sector who has understood that we We have made the right decisions responsible, privileging health, without pressure of any kind, even worse trying to take care of an image…”, Zapata argued.