Live: Guillermo Lasso in an interview with Infobae

Guillermo Lasso, a 66-year-old Ecuadorian businessman, assumed the presidency of Ecuador on May 24, 2021, after 14 years of governments associated with a political project called the Citizen Revolution. Although in the last few years Lenín Moreno, heir to Rafael Correa, ruled and both of them struck a confrontation that led to the fracture of their political organization, Alianza Pais, Lasso found a legislature dominated by a large bench related to former President Correa.

With 34% approval according to the polls, an adverse legislative assembly, social movements that announce protests against it, what will be the fate of Guillermo Lasso's government in Ecuador?

Infobae was invited to discuss this and other issues at the Carondelet Palace in Quito, seat of the executive branch, with Ecuadorian President Guillermo Lasso.

10 months after starting his term, Lasso, considered a right-wing conservative politician, has faced anti-covid vaccination, the economic reactivation of the Andean country after the coronavirus crisis, the worst massacres in the country's prisons and the highest numbers of insecurity and unemployment in Ecuador in the last decade. In addition, Lasso has been questioned by scandals such as the Pandora Papers and the veto of the law on rape abortion in Ecuador.

The government of Guillermo Lasso seeks to approve the Organic Law for the Attraction of Investment, which according to the Legislative agenda should be discussed and voted on this Tuesday. However, the ruling party does not have the necessary votes for approval. Lasso rules with a legislature against it. According to President's spokesman Carlos Jijón, the bill seeks to make Ecuador a destination for foreign investors and aims to attract around $30 billion in foreign investment.

Faced with the lack of consensus in the Ecuadorian National Assembly and the lack of political ability of the Lasso administration to obtain votes to approve its projects, public opinion discusses the possibility of the president opting for the early dissolution of powers, known as “cross death.” This figure would dissolve Congress and the president would have to call for new elections. As the new elections take place, the president could govern through the decree law.

What will be the next steps in the economic, employment and investment areas? What will the president do in the face of an eventual institutional paralysis? Could President Lasso dissolve the National Assembly of Ecuador? What is Ecuador's position in the face of the invasion of Ukraine? Lasso will answer these questions and other current issues in the space “Let's Meet for Citizenship”, a 30-minute weekly interview that is broadcast by dozens of radio and television media in the country. On March 22, Yalilé Loaiza, Infobae correspondent in Ecuador, and Fernando Gimeno, from the EFE Agency in Ecuador, will talk to President Lasso.

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