ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT FACES TRIAL

Ecuador was locked in a showdown Tuesday between its conservative president and its opposition-led Legislature that was turning the country into the latest Latin American nation torn between rival constitutional powers.

The opposition was widely expected to reach the 92 votes necessary to remove President Guillermo Lasso some time this week, but he could dissolve the Legislature to keep his job and govern by decree. The Ecuadorian constitution would allow that until new presidential and legislative elections take place.

Whatever happens, the faceoff added political instability to the problems tormenting Ecuadorians, most recently an increase in drugrelated violence, including several massacres in prisons over the past two years.

Ecuadorians have long thought of everyday life as stable when compared to its neighbors, Colombia and Peru. But many in the country have become angered by their elected officials’ failure to deal with joblessness, violence, extortion by gangsters and petty crime.

People feel the government is “totally disconnected from their most urgent needs,” said Laura Lizarazo, a senior analyst covering Ecuador and Colombia for the global firm Control Risks.

“We anticipate that the progressive deterioration in terms of security that Ecuador has experienced in the last year will persist,” she said.

Lawmakers accuse Lasso of not having intervened to end a contract between the state-owned oil transport company Flota Petrolera Ecuatoriana and the private entity Amazonas Tankers. The accusers argue that Lasso knew the contract was full of irregularities and cost the state millions in losses.

Lasso, a former banker, was elected in 2021 and has clashed from the start with a strong opposition in the National Assembly.

The president, who has had medical issues throughout his term, arrived at impeachment proceedings in the assembly Tuesday after they already began, holding onto a person’s arm as he walked.

Lasso categorically rejected the accusations, insisting there was no proof or testimony of wrongdoing, and spoke with sarcasm about the impeachment proceedings.

This is the second time the opposition has tried to impeach Lasso, but last year it didn’t get enough votes.