There is no official photo of the president and vice president of Ecuador. Never before has a political relationship been as fleeting as that between Daniel Noboa and Verónica Abad. And it is strange in a country where the figure of the vice president has never before gone so unnoticed as now. When Ecuadorians go to vote for a presidential pairing, they also return to look at who could be the replacement for the first president. This is because for a decade the country was governed by the current vice president. Between 1996 and 2005, four coups d’état occurred that defenestrated the elected president at the polls. In his replacement, the vice president who was on the bench waiting for his turn immediately assumed the new role of head of state. Except for one occasion, when the person who was to ascend to the hall of presidents of the Carondelet Palace was a woman. It was 1997, and Abdalá Bucaram, known as Crazy, for his eccentricities, was overthrown by Congress for “mental incapacity.” Bucaram fled to Panama and Rosalía Arteaga was ready to take office, but Congress prevented her from doing so. In 48 hours, the deputies elected the president of the same Legislature as the new ruler for the rest of the remaining period.
After that dark time for Ecuador’s democracy, under the fear of being betrayed, the presidential candidates have chosen their pairing with great caution, until 2023, when an unexpected maneuver by former president Guillermo Lasso to avoid a political trial against him , decreed for the first time the crossed death, a democratic escape valve to dissolve the Assembly and the Executive and call new elections. Everything went very fast. The Electoral Council raced against time to hold elections, which normally can take a year, in three months. The rush put the presidential candidates who had no party or binomial in trouble. Among those was President Daniel Noboa, who chose Verónica Abad. They were the first to register their candidacy for the presidency. That day, very smiling, the only photo together that exists of the two was photographed.
It has been difficult to define how the union between Noboa and Abad came about, two unknowns in political life who no one imagined could achieve power. Noboa has said that his ideological tendency is center-left, while Abad has declared that he is right-wing, although his speech and political relations place her more on the conservative far-right. And the first proof that the vice president showed about this was during her visit to Spain where she met with Santiago Abascal, president of Vox.
After the breakup of the relationship, Noboa has taken advantage of the blank spaces in the regulations and has completely changed the figure of the vice president. And he has the power to do it. According to the Constitution, the functions of the vice president are given by the president. So, what other presidents have done has been to give them tasks according to their profile. Rafael Correa, for example, commissioned Lenin Moreno to establish an aid program for people with disabilities, and his friend Jorge Glas delegated Telecommunications to him, because he had a degree – although questioned due to alleged plagiarism – in that area. Guillermo Lasso asked Dr. Alfredo Borrero to supervise the health crisis, as that was his specialty.
But Noboa broke that pattern. Through a decree he signed the destiny of his vice president: the Middle East. Abad was sent to Israel as an ambassador to help mediate peace in the war against Gaza. Far from the microphones, from the country’s problems, from the execution of the campaign plan they developed together, far, far, far.
But with the new electoral process underway, in which Noboa has announced that he will be a candidate, time is short to define who will be in charge of the Presidency while he is campaigning. For 45 days “the president must suspend his activities as president,” explains constitutional lawyer Ximena Ron “This means completely restricting the possibilities of an official having the possibility of influencing the voter using his position,” she adds. she. The one who should replace him is the vice president, but Abad has said that she is being pressured by the president to resign from her position. “Without a doubt it is a political persecution, there is constant political violence,” said the vice president from Tel Aviv in an interview with a Costa Rican media.
Abad’s statements came after the arrest of his son, Francisco Barreiro, whom the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating for an alleged crime of offering influence peddling in the Vice Presidency, in a case that he called Baby. Abad’s eldest son was immediately confined in the maximum security prison, La Roca, by decision of a judge. “Neither Fito nor the country’s heaviest traffickers have been sent to La Roca and they sent my son,” Abad said from Israel, a country where he cannot leave without permission from the Foreign Ministry. On May 7, Barreiro’s defense paid bail of $20,000 and was released with alternative measures.
Abad did not resign or abandon her position, despite the pressures to which she says she was subjected. Another option was considered in the halls of Congress: the possibility of an impeachment trial against the vice president to remove her from office. But they still haven’t found a cause. And if they found it, the president’s range of action in the Assembly was reduced. After ordering the assault on the Mexican embassy to capture Jorge Glas, the pact with his allies in the Legislature was broken. The Constitution does not provide many alternatives to the president when he has removed the confidence of the pair who are elected by popular vote. There is an article of the Magna Carta that could settle the matter, explains Ximena Ron. It is number 150 that refers to the case of a temporary absence of the person who exercises the Vice Presidency of the Republic. “Only there will the president be able to replace the position with a minister he trusts,” she adds. Although this may motivate the Constitutional Court to define whether the case of Abad – who was sent far from the country – would be a “temporary absence.” While waiting for the Government’s next move, the vice president’s fate is uncertain.
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