The sanction against Verónica Abad occurs before the presidential elections in which Noboa tries to be reelected
▲ The official is also her country’s ambassador to Israel.Photo Ap
Orlando Perez
Special for La Jornada
La Jornada Newspaper
Sunday, November 10, 2024, p. 19
Quito. The Ministry of Labor of Ecuador temporarily suspended Vice President Verónica Abad Rojas from office, just three months before the February elections of next year in which President Daniel Noboa Azín will seek re-election.
According to the resolution dated Friday, but disclosed yesterday, the official, who is also that nation’s ambassador to Israel, committed unjustified abandonment of work for three or more work days and failed to comply in due time with a foreign ministry order to travel to Türkiye before September 1, in the midst of the conflict in the Middle East.
Abad Rojas arrived in the territory of the Anatolian peninsula a week later, according to the document from the Ministry of Labor, which details that the official, who maintains a difficult relationship with Noboa Azín, would be separated from her position for five months and without pay. salary.
The defense of the Ecuadorian vice president, Dominique Dávila, claimed to have sufficient evidence that his client suffered gender-based political violence by the president and other members of his cabinet.
According to Dávila, the violation is so serious that it lacerates different aspects of the personality of the vice president’s exercise and function, not only as a politician but as a woman, to such an extent that discomfort could affect her, leading to her resignation or dismissal..
The litigant’s statements occurred while a hearing of evidence and arguments was being held last Friday in the Contentious Electoral Court (TCE) regarding the lawsuit filed by the vice president against Daniel Noboa. Among the accused are the chancellor, Gabriela Sommerfeld Rosero, the former vice minister of Government, Esteban Torres Cobo, and the former presidential advisor Diana Jácome.
According to several constitutionalists, the legal figure for which she is accused does not apply to a personality like the second president.
For several weeks, anonymous sources and some Ecuadorian government authorities had announced that for any reason, neither legal nor constitutionalAbad Rojas would replace the president while he participates in the electoral campaign for his re-election, from January 1 to February 9, 2025, and they added that the president would designate one of his trusted ministers to take his place.
In that sense, opinions are divided, as there are those who consider that this sanction does not nullify the constitutional powers of the vice president, which includes replacing the president in case of absence due to leave.
Correa criticizes government actions
The former president of the South American country, Rafael Correa (2007-2017), criticized the sanction with a administrative summary against a vice-governor who won the position by popular election.
The culture of cheating, which I have always told you about, continues to bury the country. The impunity and shamelessness with which they act is horrifying. The Inter-American System should intervene. Does it still exist?Correa said.
Last Tuesday, Abad Rojas was also fined $8,500 by the Contentious Electoral Court of Ecuador for allegedly carrying out an early election campaign in 2023, when she was a candidate for mayor of the city of Cuenca, but it did not remove her from office as the parties had hoped. complainants close to Noboa Azín.