{"id":36862,"date":"2023-05-06T22:28:26","date_gmt":"2023-05-06T22:28:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/ecuador-committee-fails-to\/"},"modified":"2023-05-06T22:29:11","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T22:29:11","slug":"ecuador-committee-fails-to","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/ecuador-committee-fails-to\/","title":{"rendered":"Ecuador committee fails to pass report saying no cause for Lasso impeachment"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>QUITO (Reuters) &#8211;     The oversight committee of Ecuador&#8217;s National Assembly on Saturday failed to muster up the votes to approve a report recommending against a vote to impeach President Guillermo Lasso over embezzlement accusations. <\/p>\n<p>Opposition politicians have pushed for impeachment hearings on accusations Lasso turned a blind eye to alleged embezzlement related to a contract between state-owned oil transportation company Flopec and a private business.<\/p>\n<p>Lasso has denied the allegations, saying the contract was signed in 2018 &#8211; long before he became president in 2021 &#8211; and that his administration made profitable changes to the deal based on advice from the comptroller.<\/p>\n<p>The report, which says there is no cause for Lasso&#8217;s trial or removal, was shot down by five of the committee&#8217;s nine members. <\/p>\n<p>Despite the outcome of the committee vote, the report will now pass to the plenary of the 137-member assembly, which will decide whether to possibly remove Lasso.<\/p>\n<p>Ninety-two votes are needed to remove him, and lawmakers from the party of ex-President Rafael Correa &#8211; himself convicted of corruption &#8211; have pledged their 47 votes in favor. <\/p>\n<p>Other opposition parties are divided on whether to back Lasso&#8217;s removal, while his allies have said they have enough votes to block the motion.<\/p>\n<p>Lasso&#8217;s lawyer has said the opposition failed to establish what alleged loss of funds took place in relation to the contract.<\/p>\n<p>Under Ecuador&#8217;s constitution, Lasso could call early presidential and legislative elections rather than face a removal vote.<\/p>\n<p \/>\n<p> (Reporting by Alexandra Valencia; Writing by Oliver Griffin, Editing by Franklin Paul)<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/ecuador-committee-fails-to\/file-photo-aftermath-of-landslide-in-alausi-3\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ450B6-VIEWIMAGE.jpg\" alt=\"tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ450B6-VIEWIMAGE\"><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>QUITO (Reuters) &#8211; The oversight committee of Ecuador&#8217;s National Assembly on Saturday failed to muster up the votes to approve a report recommending against a vote to impeach President Guillermo Lasso over embezzlement accusations. Opposition politicians have pushed for impeachment hearings on accusations Lasso turned a blind eye to alleged embezzlement related to a contract [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":36863,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1222],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-u-s-world-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-content\/uploads\/Reuters_Direct_Media\/USOnlineReportWorldNews\/tagreuters.com2023binary_LYNXMPEJ450B6-VIEWIMAGE.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36864,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36862\/revisions\/36864"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lynettelockhart.com\/client\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}