Indigenous protester dies in Ecuador as violence increases
Al JazeeraAPR 2022
Lasso has illegally prevented himself from being impeached in the coming days but, by doing so, he is offering a golden opportunity for the Ecuadorian people to vote him out of office, recover the country, and lower tensions. While he will be able to govern by decree for six months without the legislative checks and balances, the law does not allow Lasso to do anything he wants. This is an authoritarian move by Lasso, but there's a pathway toward a brighter future.
Despite claims that this is an illegal order, it was the radical leftist authoritarian Rafael Correa who enshrined Article 148, which requires only an executive order to trigger this move, in the constitution. This decree is justifiable as the opposition camp has long sought to drag Ecuador into a political crisis to depose the democratically elected government, fueling unrest and activating 14 impeachment trials.