Veronica Abad Daniel Noboa | Why the Government of Ecuador suspended the vice president a few months before the elections | Why are Daniel Noboa and Verónica Abad fighting?

Noboa who will run for re-election, You must request a license before January 5which is when the campaign begins, and leave office. According to the Constitution, the one who replaces him is the vice president in this case Abad. But if the suspension against her remains firm, she will not be able to assume the Presidency, something that the president has sought all this time.

On November 9, it was reported that The Ministry of Labor suspended Vice President Abad for five months due to an alleged “unjustified abandonment” of their duties.

The origin of this suspension has to do with the function that was assigned to the vice president. At the beginning of the Government, when the relationship was already distant, Noboa surprised by appointing Abad as ambassador to Israel something that she rejected at the time but ended up taking the position.

In August of this year, in the midst of the war escalation in the Middle East, the Government decided to transfer Abad to Türkiye for safety.

According to the Ministry of Labor of Ecuador, Abad had to be installed in Ankara until September 1, but the vice president arrived in the Turkish capital on the 9th of that month.

Abad has reported that he is a victim of harassment by the president to force her to resign from office and has said that she fears for her life. Furthermore, he has described as “dictatorship” to the Executive commanded by Noboa.

On November 11, the government of Noboa appointed the Minister of Planning, Sariha Moyaas interim vice president of the country, replacing Abad.

These are the keys to the case:

Why is there a tense relationship between Noboa and Abad?

The distance between Noboa y Abad began in the second round of the 2023 presidential elections, which he won Noboaand was consummated after the investiture when, in one of his first decisions, The president appointed her ambassador to Israel, with the mission of seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

In Ecuadorian political analyst Mauricio Alarcón-Salvador, director of the NGO Citizenship and Development, told The Commerce what There is no certainty about the reason for the breakup between Noboa and Abad.

“There is a lot of speculation that it has to do with the financing of the campaign, I am not even going to describe it as illicit, and that this breakup due to campaign economic management, related to both obtaining income and improper expenses, was what bankrupted this relationship completely,” indicated Alarcón-Salvador.

The analyst maintained that This situation has no precedent in the country. “The way in which for almost a year Noboa has worked to get out of the way Abad is unprecedented in Ecuadorand is due to the fact that since Noboa is opting for the position of president again, he must request a mandatory leave for the time during which he campaigns, which is from the beginning of January to the beginning of February, causing a temporary absence that must be supplied by whoever occupies the vice presidency”, said.

“For Noboa, it is very risky to allow Abad to come to power, even if it’s for a month. For this reason, he has worked tirelessly this year, in a thousand and one possible ways, so that Abad is not the one who relieves him,” added Alarcón-Salvador.

The judicial paths for the vice president

Last Friday, A judge from Quito admitted the protection action to processing who presented the defense of the vice president, but refused to grant him the precautionary measures with which he intended that his suspension be revoked. The public hearing in the case was scheduled for November 27.

Lawyer Sebastián López, doctor in Law from the Simón Bolívar Andean University of Quito, told BBC Mundo that the decision of the Ministry of Labor is “absolutely and blatantly unconstitutional”.

The specialist added that the protective action presented by Abad could take longer to resolve than the 150-day sanction that weighs on it.

The vice president has also resorted to the inter-American system for the protection of human rights to hold the State responsible for the sanction.

“We have raised the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to urgently review this sentence of direct dismissal of the president. “This is not a decision by the Minister of Labor, this is an order from the president and he must be judged on that basis.”said Abad in an interview with the Spanish newspaper El País.

For its part, the National Assembly from Ecuadorwith an opposition majority, approved “disregarding” the suspension of the vice presidentand announced that he will present before the Constitutional Court an action to interpret several articles of the Constitution, relating to who should replace the president and vice president in case of absence.

Is Noboa a dictator?

In the interview with El País, Abad described Noboa as “dictator”. He assured that the president “it’s a totalitarianhas demonstrated it from the beginning with my exile. The ceiling of a democrat is the law, to limit power, and he does not like to live under the law because he believes he is all-powerful.”

Political analyst Mauricio Alarcón-Salvador told The Commerce that during this year of government of Noboa, “There have been questions about his style of government, defined by some sectors as authoritarian, totalitarian, not attached to the Constitution.”

“The theme of Abad It is just an example of what can be done by violating the Constitution with the sole objective of satisfying personal interests, but in recent days there have been strong questions regarding what has happened with the presidential candidacy of Jan Topic (who was disqualified from participating in the February elections), as well as other actions and acts of intimidation that have taken place with respect to other fundamental rights”indicated Salvador-Alarcón.