Ecuador’s National Assembly to discuss President Lasso’s impeachment during its Saturday session

CITY OF MEXICO, June 25 – RIA Novosti. The Ecuadorian National Assembly will discuss the impeachment of President Guillermo Lasso during its Saturday session.

The meeting on the impeachment was convened by the Speaker of the Assembly, Virgilio Sakisela, at the request of 47 MPs from the Hope Union faction UNes. The session will be face-to-face and will start at 18:00 local time (2:00 Moscow Sunday time).

The MPs’ petition is linked to a serious political crisis and mass protests that have shaken the country for almost two weeks. The impeachment would require a vote of 92 of the 137 members of the legislature.

President Lasso, in his speech to the citizens on Friday, said that the main intention of those who participated in the acts of violence in the country’s cities was to stage a coup, and warned of the threat to democracy in the country.

The protests of the Confederation of Indian Peoples of Ecuador (La Confederación de Nacionalidades Indígenas del Ecuador, CONAIE) against the social and economic policies of the country’s leadership started with small demonstrations on 13 June and covered the whole country a week later. Since June 18, a state of emergency has been declared in a number of regions, including the capital. Road blockages halted utilities and hampered emergency services, with state oil company Petroecuador shutting down more than 800 wells and SOTE pumping oil through the Trans-Ecuadorian oil pipeline.