Ecuadorian ministers have rallied around President Daniel Noboa in the face of what they consider an attempted coup d’état by his vice president, Verónica Abad, following a complaint filed with the electoral court. They have also warned that they will not allow democracy to be destabilized.
The reaction of the ministerial cabinet came after it became known that Abad – who has been at odds with Noboa practically since the beginning of his government in November – filed a complaint for alleged political gender violence against Noboa before the Electoral Disputes Tribunal (TCE), which must analyze whether to admit the case.
If this is the case and is proven, this complaint could lead to a possible dismissal and suspension of political rights for four years for Noboa, who has announced that will run for re-election in the 2025 elections.
Citing a “destabilising attempt”, Interior Minister Mónica Palencia said that Abad had submitted a request to the TCE “in order to remove the president by way of sanction and also obtain his disqualification for four years”.
“She intends to seize power in government, to be the president of Ecuador and, in addition, to disqualify him from being a candidate for the presidency,” Palencia said in a message in which she appears escorted by members of the police.
And he warned: “We will not allow it. She is claiming that there has been a violation of her rights to participate with gender violence because she has been given the sole function of being an ambassador to the State of Israel.”
Confrontation
That surprise appointment at the end of last year showed the distancing between Noboa and Abad, which had been perceived since the campaign for the runoff in October last year began.
Palencia questioned the fact that after nine months, Abad claims to be a victim of gender violence.
“We know well what has happened to the States that have allowed destabilization to grow. Ecuador is united and firm in its support of democratic institutions,” he said.
And he assured that The National Police, the Ministry of the Interior, and the security bloc, which includes the military, will be vigilant “so that the established order is not broken, “Do not break the Constitution, do not break the law.”
Internal armed conflict
Defense Minister Gian Carlo Loffredo commented in another video that the government is not only fighting a battle against criminal mafias but “also against the old politics that, with its legal tricks and constant accusations, once again seek to make the country go backwards, seeking to generate yet another attempt to destabilize and weaken the process that we undertook and that we will not interrupt.”
The official rejected “any attempt to plunge a country that is struggling to emerge and have better days into instability again” and asked “the political class, responsible for these events, to refrain from any such action.”
“No one’s excessive ambition -he said- can be above the well-being and security of the entire country. We will not allow it.”
For Chancellor Gabriela Sommerfeld, “a coup d’état disguised as an electoral sanction is being planned in the most despicable way, seeking only instability and an attack on the will of the citizens.”
And he expressed his support for Noboa on social media, who – he said – “openly and without hesitation declares war on organized crime and corruption.”
The Minister of Economy, Juan Carlos Vega, maintains that Abad’s complaint is “clearly” an “attempt at a coup d’état with shady interests to destabilize the government, an act that he called “treason to the Fatherland” and “state insubordination” at a time when the country is experiencing an “internal armed conflict” declared by Noboa against the mafias since last January.
“This is a clear attempt at a coup d’état. Calling for the dismissal of a president in the middle of an internal armed conflict? You have to be crazy,” wrote Tourism Minister Niels Olsen in X.
For Sade Fritschi, Minister of the Environment, “it is regrettable and reprehensible” that Vice President Abad is trying to create disorder in favor of those who seek to take advantage of the chaos.”
“This obvious coup attempt” demonstrates a lack of understanding of the current context. In the midst of an internal armed conflict, these actions could be considered treason,” he said.
Abad’s complaint, also addressed to Sommerfeld, Vice Minister Esteban Torres and advisor Diana Jácome, was submitted to the TCE one day before the ruling party nominated Noboa for reelection.
To begin campaigning for the elections scheduled for February 2025, Noboa will have to ask for leave and, according to the Constitution, hand over power to her vice president, who has denounced alleged harassment to force her to resign, something she has reiterated that she does not plan to do.