After the President of the Republic Laurentino Cortizo announced that he suffers from myelodysplastic syndrome and that he will travel to Houston, United States, after July 1 for a second medical opinion, doubts have arisen as to who will be in charge of the country during his absence.
And it is that despite the fact that the time in which the president will be absent is still unknown, the president of the National Bar Association, Juan Carlos Araúz explained that, constitutionally, it would correspond to Vice President José Gabriel Carrizo to occupy the position of president in charge during his absence, however, he explained that if he held the position he would automatically be disqualified from running for president in 2024.
“In the event that there is an absence in which the vice president must occupy the position of president in charge, even if it is for a minute, two minutes, that would be a cause that would prevent him from becoming a presidential candidate,” he assured, recalling that in the last 10 years the constant has been that the vice presidents avoid at all costs occupying the temporary position of president in order not to truncate their future political aspirations.
He cited the case of former president and at the time vice president Juan Carlos Varela and former vice president Isabel Saint Malo, who never held the temporary presidency during their terms.
He revealed that the only way that Vice President Carrizo could not exercise that responsibility, as interim president, would be for two reasons; one that they are also fulfilling obligations inherent to their position abroad and the other is that they resign from the position of vice president as a way to avoid assuming the responsibility of the president in charge.
In the event that he resigns from the position of vice president, the order of succession that would take us to the president of the Assembly and then to the president of the Supreme Court of Justice would be chosen, as stipulated in the Constitution.
It is worth mentioning that the Constitution also establishes that the president can be absent from the national territory for 10 days without having to request a license and when it is greater than that time, it must be approved by the Cabinet Council; if it exceeds 90 days, the authorization must be given by the National Assembly.
