Ecuador’s embattled president, Guillermo Lasso, has dissolved congress in an attempt to escape impeachment – a radical maneuver that comes amid a backdrop of wider democratic backsliding and political turbulence across Latin America.
Lasso announced the dramatic move on Wednesday morning, a day after the start of an impeachment trial that seemed likely to lead to his removal from power in the coming days.
“Ecuadorian women and men: this is the best decision to find a constitutional way out of the political crisis … and give the people of Ecuador the chance to decide their future at the next elections,” tweeted the 67-year-old conservative businessman, who was elected in April 2021 after defeating the leftist economist Andrés Arauz.
Lasso’s decision to trigger a constitutional “mutual-death” clause dissolving his country’s 137-member national assembly will allow him to govern without the legislature until fresh elections are held. Some observers believe it could benefit the president, who will be allowed to stand in that contest.
However, the suspension of congress is also a setback to Ecuador’s democracy and the latest flare-up of political disruption in a region that has this year grappled with an uprising in the Peruvian Andes, accelerating authoritarian crackdowns in Nicaragua and El Salvador, an alleged military coup attempt in Brazil, democratic regression in Mexico and an explosion of gang violence in Haiti.
Lasso’s 11-page decree, which comes into force immediately, states that his decision was taken as a result of “severe political crisis and domestic upheaval” and orders electoral authorities to call elections in the next seven days. The decree describes the measure a way of preventing a “violent escalation” such as the mass protests that brought the capital, Quito, and other parts of the country to a standstill in June last year.
In his inaugural speech after taking power in May 2021, Lasso called himself a “man of action” who would lead Ecuador’s 18 million citizens into an “eternally democratic” future of social equality and economic stability. But the former banker has faced major obstacles – including the fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and a horrifying upsurge in drug-related violence linked to the growing presence of Mexican cartels – and has repeatedly locked horns with the opposition-controlled national assembly.
Lasso survived the opposition’s first attempt to impeach him, in June last year, but looked set to be removed from office later this week after the start of an impeachment hearing based on embezzlement accusations which he disputes. His decree means those proceedings will end.
Opposition lawmakers needed 92 votes, out of 137, to remove Lasso in a session of the national assembly which began on Tuesday.
“The only way out is the impeachment and exit of the president of the republic, Guillermo Lasso,” said Viviana Veloz, an opposition lawmaker who was leading the impeachment process.
Supporters of the president had gathered outside the assembly on Tuesday, but by Wednesday morning police and members of the military had encircled the building, allowing no one inside.
Earlier, the chief of the joint command of the armed forces, Nelson Proaño, had pledged “absolute respect for the constitution and the laws” in support of Lasso’s move.
Apart from armed police and soldiers circling the assembly building, there was little change on the streets of Quito. The graphic design student Jennifer Pincay, 21, said: “From the very beginning [Lasso] did not have a good reputation or even a good handle on power in Ecuador. The people knew that but still chose to vote for him.”
Santiago Basabe, a political scientist with the Latin American Institute of Social Sciences in Quito, said it was the safest decision the president could have made.
Basabe added while the move set an undemocratic precedent there was “nothing undemocratic and nothing unconstitutional” about it. “This article clearly says it can be used when the president deems it appropriate,” he added.
But Leonidas Iza, the leader of the powerful Conaie Indigenous federation, slammed Lasso’s move in a tweet: “Not having the necessary votes to save himself from imminent dismissal, Lasso carries out a cowardly self-coup with the help of the police and the armed forces, without citizen support, turning himself [sic] into an imminent dictatorship.”
The group, which can muster tens of thousands of members for street demonstrations, had previously threatened to hold fresh marches this week.
Last year, Conaie led protests throughout Ecuador that almost unseated Lasso. It was also at the forefront of demonstrations against the lifting of fuel subsidies in 2019 which turned deadly when huge numbers marched on the capital.