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María Alejandra Vicuña resigned after 14 months in office
Posted On 05 Dec 2018
Ecuadornews:
She leaves in the middle of an investigation about the alleged collection of”tithes” from her collaborators when she was a legislator. She questioned the parliamentarians who voted to demand her resignation.
Article145 of the Constitution stipulates the grounds for the cessation of functions,one of which is the voluntary resignation accepted by the Assembly. One day after President Lenin Moreno released her from office, María Alejandra Vicuña announced her resignation from the Vice Presidency of the Republic. She did sothrough a statement that was released this Tuesday, December 4 in theaf ternoon.
The decision was made in the middle of an investigation into presumed mandatory charges to her collaborators, when Vicuña was an assembly member. These funds,supposedly, were destined for the political organization to which she belongs,Alianza Bolivariana Alfarista (ABA).
However,in statements to the press last week, she argued that the securities were delivered to his personal account because the political organization is in factand not law. The letter of resignation was published in her Twitter account andin its content she maintains that her decision is because she prefers that the President has someone else to assume definitively the great responsibilities that he entrusted to her.
“The country wants and needs peace to move forward,” she added. However, she questioned the legislators who voted to demand her resignation, as well as those who accused her of the alleged undue charges. “Seventy-sevenlegislators in the National Assembly, echoing that hoax, have asked me to resign without at least asking me to appear to give an explanation, violatingthe most elementary right to due process also for political affairs.” She indicated that she leaves a Vice Presidency that did an articulated and effective work for the provinces of Manabí and Esmeraldas, affected after the earthquake of April 16, 2016. And thanked the President and the Cabinet, whom she wished “that the reason also accompany them in the exercise of itsdelicate functions and the greatest success for the benefit of Ecuadorians.”
Vicuña took over in October of last year, on request, the Vice Presidency, replacing Jorge Glas, who was arrested for the Odebrecht case. In January he was sentenced to six years in prison and the National Assembly, from a list sent by theExecutive, officially elected her.
Before the announcement of her resignation, the Legislature announced that a session was scheduled for Thursday, December 6 to analyze the license request of Vicuña until December 31, time that would serve to prepare her defense. Article 145 of the Constitution indicates the grounds for the cessation of the functions of the President; subsection 2 indicates that one of them is the voluntary resignation accepted by the National Assembly.
While article 149 of the Magna Carta refers to the fact that those same requirement sand inabilities have a vice president. Hence, the legislative body had planned,first, know the license application. Until the afternoon of this Tuesday,December 4, once the resignation of Vicuña was known, no change in the agenda was expected in Parliament. (I)
