Bloomberg Línea — Following Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso’s declaration of the dissolution of Congress, some Latin American presidents and political leaders on Wednesday expressed their positions on the matter.
The president of Mexico, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, considered that there will be no political instability or violence in Ecuador, “besides, I do not wish it. I hope [our] Ecuadorian brothers can solve this with this due process, if new elections are going to be called, and then all political forces should participate”.
However, the Mexican president said during his morning press conference that his government will be alert to possible “confrontations” and asserted that the Mexican ambassador in Ecuador, Raquel Serur, “is surely taking care” of Mexicans in that country.
Meanwhile, the Presidency of Peru expressed in a message posted on its social networks in support to Ecuador and assured that Lasso exercised “his constitutional functions” by decreeing the dissolution of parliament and calling for early general elections, in the midst of the impeachment trial against him.
“We respect the decision taken by President Guillermo Lasso within the Constitutional framework,” the Peruvian government stated in a tweet.
“We advocate for the upcoming electoral process in the sister Republic of Ecuador to be carried out within the legal channels, in peace and democracy,” it added.
Through the same social network, former Bolivian president Evo Morales and who is close ideologically to Ecuador’s former president Rafael Correa, described as “double standards” the decision of the Ecuadorian president, recalling that “five months ago he accused brother [former Peruvian president] Pedro Castillo of being a coup leader, who did the same, but to stop a conspiracy”.
Morales said that the constitutional mechanism used by Lasso was “just an excuse” to halt a process for alleged corruption against him.
For his part, Paraguay’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Julio Arriola, also referred to the conflict and mentioned that his country’s foreign policy is focused on non-interference in the internal affairs of other states.
“The position that Paraguay will always take in its foreign policy is that of respect for democracy and human rights.” he said.
The mechanism with which Lasso dissolved Congress, popularly known as the ‘death crusade’, was incorporated into the 2008 Constitution during Correa’s administration, and is a clause with which the National Assembly is dissolved to subsequently call for elections, in order to renew the legislative and executive powers.