The current administration fears that Verónica Abad will repeal the increase in VAT to 15% and the agreement with the IMF
Orlando Perez
Special for La Jornada
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 14, 2024, p. 26
Quito. The president of Ecuador has an unresolved conflict within his own government, which has been exacerbated by a political dispute. Since his administration began on November 23, Daniel Noboa sent his partner, Verónica Abad, into virtual exile in Israel as a special ambassador for peace, and now she is in Turkey due to the risk of attacks against Tel Aviv.
The sources consulted indicate that the two Ecuadorian leaders have not spoken to each other since last September, following accusations of money mismanagement in last year’s election campaign, supposedly by the then vice-presidential candidate. And this is aggravated by spokesmen who do not stop throwing much more incisive darts.
The latest: Abad accused Noboa of gender-based political violence before the Electoral Contentious Tribunal (TCE). The lawsuit includes Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, Vice Minister of Politics Esteban Torres, and presidential advisor Diana Jácome (who was a vice-presidential candidate with one of Noboa’s rivals, Jan Topic).
The complaint was filed on August 8 and was made public on Monday. In it, Abad argues that since her appointment as peace ambassador, harassment has been initiated with statements to force her to resign from her position, especially before Noboa runs for reelection and she, by constitutional mandate, has to replace him. This, according to Vice Minister Torres, It would be disastrous for the country.
What consequences would this lawsuit bring? Abad hopes that the defendants be removed from office, suspended from their participation rights for four years and fined $32,000. Therefore, Noboa would not be able to seek re-election in 2025. However, there are no conditions or guarantees in the TCE, since the internal conflicts of that body warn that the complaint could be blocked or archived.
Ecuadorian government officials fear that if the vice president takes office, she would repeal measures such as the increase in the value-added tax rate to 15 percent, in effect since April 1, agreements with the International Monetary Fund, and changes in the cabinet itself.
The paradox is that, being the second highest authority in the country, he must ask the chancellor for permission even to visit his son, who has been imprisoned for months for alleged acts of corruption.
In an interview last May, Sommerfeld said that Abad acted against Ecuador instead of fulfilling the functions ordered by Noboa.
In addition, Abad explained that there are a whole strategy to damage her image and that of her family, with questions about her motherhood. She also points to Diana Jácome, presidential advisor, as she has said on several occasions that Abad is an enemy supported by political groups that want to attack the Government.
Jácome insinuates that the vice president is related to the Citizen Revolution movement of former president Rafael Correa, which is inconsistent if we review her statements during the last electoral campaign and when Abad was a candidate for mayor of Cuenca.