Facing impeachment by the opposition-controlled National Assembly, President Guillermo Lasso of Ecuador last week invoked a constitutional article allowing him to dissolve the legislature and call new presidential elections.
Called “mutual death” (muerte cruzada, in Spanish), this legal device was incorporated into Ecuador’s 2008 constitution. It gives the head of state the prerogative to call snap presidential and legislative elections under a variety of circumstances, including if they understand that lawmakers are overstepping their duties, deliberately hindering the government’s “development plan,” or in situations of “serious political crisis” or “internal unrest.”
For many, President Lasso’s decision reminiscent of what happened in Peru last year, when former left-wing leader Pedro Castillo, also fearing impeachment, decided to dissolve Congress. But the basis for their moves was different, while Mr. Castillo suffered a very different end than the one awaiting his right-wing counterpart in Ecuador.
Mr. Lasso will remain in office until new elections take place. Mr. Castillo, on the other hand, was promptly ousted and jailed after issuing his decree, accused of attempting a “self-coup.” His maneuver was even compared to that of Peru’s far-right former president Alberto Fujimori, who dissolved Congress in 1992, took over the country’s court system, and later wrote a tailor-made constitution that allowed him to rule with an iron fist for the entire decade.
Mutual death and votes of no confidence
To understand the similarities and differences between the events in Peru...
Search
