The Presidency of the Assembly cracks Pachakutik

Guadalupe Llori begins to talk about an attempt to destabilize her. Since May 2021, the differences between the Pachakutik assembly members have been evident.

On May 15, 2021, Guadalupe Llori became the president of the National Assembly. With 71 votes in favor, the Pachakutik assemblywoman broke the canon of her predecessors: an indigenous-Amazonian woman was going to lead the Legislature.

It promised new airs for the second power of the State. He had the support of his party, Pachakutik, which has 25 seats in the Assembly. Pachakutik came on strong.

However, 9 months later, Llori calls a group of assembly members from his own party conspirators, destabilizers, and “unes disposables” (Unión por la Esperanza, Correísta party). It seems that the differences are irremediable.

What happened

On January 6, 2021, eight Pachakutik assembly members distanced themselves and proclaimed themselves “Pachakutik rebel and patriot.” Darwin Pereira, Patricia Sánchez, Peter Calo, Fernando Cabscango, Salvador Maita, Mireya Pazmiño, Mario Ruiz and Joel Abad signed a letter in which they expressed their rejection of the actions of some of their colleagues, whom they accused of not aligning with the policies of the party and to be close to the Government. They also made reference to the president of the bench, Rafael Rosero.

On February 17, 2022, in session 757, the Draft Resolution was presented that requires the non-interference of the different State Functions with respect to the constitutional powers and functions of the CPCCS. In that document, Mireya Pazmiño proposed the formation of an ad hoc multiparty commission to investigate the fulfillment of the functions of the Legislative Administration Council, which is chaired by Llori. The resolution was not approved.

The next day in a tweet, the president of the Assembly, Guadalupe Llori, wrote: “blatantly use the wipala” and put in capital letters, that “THEY ARE THE WORST SHAME!”, this referring to his companions on the bench.

For Assemblyman Mario Ruiz, “the President’s actions are public and notorious, which is not in accordance with the principles and fundamentals that Pachakutik initiated. Although she denies it, she is at the service of Guillermo Lasso”.

Criticisms include various themes

They criticize her, in particular, for hindering the debate on the repeal of the Tax Law that, say her fellow opponents, they have asked her to deal with since December without result.

They assure that it has not given way to the supervision of privatizations, such as that of Banco del Pacífico, nor to deal with issues such as the demand that banks lower interest rates.

So they are willing to make a majority with those who want to be in that line. “If they say that we are disposable from Unes, she is disposable from the Government,” says Assemblyman Ruiz, laughing.

Politics. On twitter, Llori attacks some of the assembly members of his own party

Those who question Llori’s work say that the management of the agenda favors the ruling party. And what, according to the Organic Law of the Legislative Function, article 18, the President and Vice President can be dismissed for “breach of functions”.

This requires the creation of an ad hoc multiparty commission of five members, appointed by the National Assembly itself, to support the request for dismissal. Then, the Plenary would decide with an absolute majority vote, 70 votes. In case of being removed, the President does not lose her seat, she continues to be a member of the Assembly. This would be one of the situations that Llori could face in the coming weeks.

The law can confuse impeachment

For Professor Mauro Andino, the issue could become more complex, because article 18 of the Organic Law of the Legislative Function also provides that “the deadlines and the procedure for dismissal of authorities of the Assembly will be the same as established in this Law for the dismissal of assemblymen”.

This could be interpreted as meaning that the removal request must go through the CAL. Llori being part of the CAL could prevent the issue from being discussed in plenary. But if, in addition to the President of the Assembly, the dismissal of at least one part of the CAL is requested, there would be a critical knot because the members of the CAL could not sustain the dismissal of themselves.

So, the other strategy could be to propose the removal of the President and some of the CAL members by changing the order of the day, for which 70 votes would be needed. “If the order of the day is changed, a possible new majority in the Assembly would already be visible,” says Andino.

In an interview with La Posta, Ana Belén Cordero, assemblywoman for CREO, supported Llori’s perception that they are after her, and assured that “they have the votes, but not the decency.” In other words, they are aware that it would seem that a majority is being assembled that would be able to analyze the removal of the first Amazonian woman president of Parliament.