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Espinosa, a tris to be saved
Posted On 14 May 2019
Ecuadornews:
The political trial against former Foreign Minister María Fernanda Espinosa in the National Assembly is staggering. Yesterday, the correístas and the majority of Morenoites of the Oversight Committee came together again, recovered the overwhelming majority that had been reserved before splitting and put the assembly members from the ranks of CREO and Social Christianity, before an anguished dilemma : either they forget Julian Assange or they forget the impeachment. Without agreement among the blocs or enough votes to approve or close the process, the Commission preferred to evaporate in the absence of a quorum to be ensnared in the voting. The final report, which should have been approved yesterday, was to be debated today after the meeting of the Plenary session in which a new president of the Legislative Branch will be elected.
“If the case of Assange enters the final report, will you vote in favor?” A reporter asked Ronny Aleaga point-blank at the end of the failed meeting. “Of course not,” exclaimed the correísta without thinking twice. That issue is already judicialized and does not make any sense to us. ” With “us”, Aleaga refers to himself, Lira Villalba and Hermuy Calle, his fellow bankers, plus the pro-government Karla Cadena and Kharla Chávez and the socialist Silvia Salgado, always on horseback between them. Six of twelve. Yesterday, while the Secretary of the Supervisory Commission read more than sixty pages of the allegation sent by the former Chancellor in his defense, it was learned that all of them are willing to support the impeachment as long as the Assange case is not included among the charges.
That, for the interpellant is a problem. The alleged irregularities committed during the process of nationalization of the Australian hacker were declared by the Foreign Minister, José Valencia, as an “injurious administrative act” against the Ecuadorian State and are, by far, the most forceful of the charges against Espinosa. Without it, the political trial loses a good part of its substance and is reduced to two main issues: breach of functions during the crisis of the northern border that led to the murder of a journalistic team of newspaper El Comercio in the hands of the guerrillas, and of policies of his ministry to help the Ecuadorian colony in Venezuela since the humanitarian crisis in that country was unleashed.
Yesterday, the reading of the defense plea of the ex-Chancellor had to be interrupted due to lack of quorum. Actually, several members of the Commission walked through the corridors, stretching their legs, but the president María José Carrión, who will leave that position next Friday, decided to give herself 24 more hours to reach an agreement. Intense conversations in which Carrión took part, the Social Christian Ramón Terán, the representative of CREO Homero Castanier and the ruling Karla Cadena and Kharla Chávez, failed to convince the latter to change their position, so Carrión closed the matter as soon as He presented him with an opportunity and locked himself in his office.
Quickly the correístas and their new allies, with Aleaga at the head, reconstituted the quorum and went to ask the president to reinstall the session. It was their opportunity and they should seize it: with those who were present, they would have won in the voting. Raul Tello realized the move and, almost on the run, put ground in between by taking Ramón Terán’s arm. In any case, María José Carrión did not give up: when the correistas knocked on her door she sent word that she was not there.
The continuation of the interrupted session yesterday will be fulfilled today afternoon, after the conclusion of the plenary session. Missing the reading of Espinosa’s argument and discussing a draft report. Probably the interpellants end up giving in and decide to sacrifice the Assange case to save the trial. The question is: without the Assange case, does the Espinosa case have a future?
High concept of herself
Surprising: María Fernanda Espinosa repeated letter by letter the defense of deposed Vice President Alejandra Vicuña: “they persecute me because I am a woman and I am from the left”. In what reached to be read yesterday of his plea, the ex-chancellor spoke of Syria, Yemen, the peace in the Middle East and of the supposed importance that has for the country its management in the UN. (I)
