Ecuadorian’s Administration Fight!
Quito, Nov 9 (EFE).-
Ecuador’s vice president, Verónica Abad, was suspended by the Ministry of Labor on Saturday for 150 days without pay for “unjustified abandonment of work for three or more working days.”
The decision comes amid tensions between President Daniel Noboa and Abad since sent her to Israel as ambassador, and she denounced him for gender-based political violence.
The Ministry of Labor opened an administrative investigation against Abad for failing to arrive in Turkey from Israel on the date set by the government, at a time when the war in the Middle East was escalating.
Despite the 150-day suspension, the ministry has said it cannot remove the vice president from office because she is a popularly elected official who cannot be dismissed through an administrative process.
Tensions between the president and the vice president have increased since Noboa had to temporarily leave the presidency to campaign for the 2025 general elections and Abad must be in charge of government.
In September, Abad claimed that the administrative investigation against her was “another act of political persecution and harassment.
“He (Noboa) has set up several mechanisms to prevent me from replacing him in the post if he is forced to resign due to his impending candidacy,” Abad said when she filed the complaint.
In one of the first reactions to the ministry’s sanction, presidential candidate Henry Cucalón, who was government minister during the administration of former President Guillermo Lasso (2021-2023), criticized the ministry’s decision on X, saying it showed the government’s “contempt for institutionality and democracy. “
‘” The sanctioning of the Vice President (…) is unconstitutional and illegal, both in form and substance. All this with a single objective: to prevent her from replacing the president in an electoral campaign,” he added.
Gendered political violence
The five-month suspension is dated Nov. 8, the same day that Abad presented to the Electoral Tribunal (TCE) eight alleged “aggressions” that support her complaint of alleged gender-based political violence against Noboa and other members of his administration.
Abad is asking the TCE to sanction President Noboa, Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld, presidential advisor Diana Jácome, and former deputy government minister Esteban Torres.
According to Damián Armijos, Abad’s lawyer, Noboa, and the other officials have tried “at all costs” to prevent his client from exercising her public function.
Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Gabriela Sommerfeld and presidential advisor Diana Jácome have also filed complaints against Abad for gender-based political violence.
He also pointed out that they have tried to “frighten, intimidate and harass her” to “provoke her resignation and thus prevent the presidential succession, as required by the Constitution. EFE
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