Ecuador’s national assembly rejected a motion to launch impeachment proceedings against President Guillermo Lasso on 7 December, which had called for his removal from office due to his naming in the leaked ‘Pandora Papers’ on international tax havens [WR-21-41]. The vote followed a decision by the comptroller general’s office to shelve an investigation into Lasso’s tax arrangements after finding no evidence of criminal wrongdoing. Lasso may be out of immediate danger, but an investigation into him by the attorney general’s office reportedly remains open.
The impeachment motion, which was presented by the left-wing Unión por la Esperanza (Unes) coalition, accused President Lasso of the impeachable offence of “causing a grave political crisis”. It was defeated with 77 votes against, 51 votes in favour, and seven abstentions. The motion was based on a damning report by the national assembly’s commission on constitutional guarantees, which accused Lasso of breaking the law with his use of bank accounts in Panama and the US.
During a tense five-hour debate, the legislature also failed to approve subsequent motions that would have called on the attorney general’s office to conduct an audit of Lasso and his wife’s financial records. The only motion that was approved was one put forward by the centre-left Izquierda Democrática (ID), calling on Lasso to appear for questioning by the legislature – Lasso subsequently said that he would not do so.
Lasso’s justification for his refusal to appear before the national assembly was the 7 December announcement by the comptroller general’s office that it had archived its investigation into him after failing to find “objective proof that, when he registered his candidacy for the presidency…he was the direct or indirect owner of goods or capital in jurisdictions considered to be tax havens”. The comptroller’s statement ruled that South Dakota, where the Pandora investigation revealed that Lasso still held funds as of October, “is not considered a tax haven” under Ecuadorean law.
Lasso is not necessarily off the hook just yet. An investigation reportedly remains open in the attorney general’s office. This probe was initiated following a complaint by Yaku Pérez, the defeated candidate for the indigenous party Pachakutik in this year’s presidential election. However, it is unlikely that this investigation will reach a dramatically different conclusion to that of the comptroller general’s office.
The government will likely be more concerned by the political capital it has lost during the Pandora debacle. The scandal highlighted the deep cracks in Lasso’s shaky legislative alliance with Pachakutik, with many of the indigenous party’s deputies effectively moving into opposition in recent months.
Nor can Lasso rely on ID, its other loose ally in the legislature, which has also distanced itself from the government since the Pandora Papers were leaked in October. With Lasso’s centre-right Movimiento Creo holding fewer than 10% of seats in the national assembly, these desertions could create serious difficulties when the government attempts to press ahead with its controversial labour reform in the new year [WR-21-39].
Quito’s metro nears completion
The mayor of Quito, Santiago Guarderas, announced on 6 December that the capital’s long-awaited metro system will likely be inaugurated in the final quarter of 2022. Guarderas said that construction on the 15-station, 22km metro is “99.3% complete”, and that attention is now turning to finding an international operator to run it once it is completed. Construction began on the metro in 2012 and was scheduled to be completed in 2020, but it was delayed by a further two years due to the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.