MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Ecuador grants amnesty to those involved in 2019 scuffles

Assembly Speaker Guadalupe Llori said the decision was “transcendental”

Ecuador's National Assembly Thursday passed a bill to grant amnesty to 268 people who were being prosecuted for “exercising their own right and collective rights recognized in the Constitution and international instruments” during the social uprisings in the last quarter of 2019, it was announced.

With 99 favorable votes from all the Union for Hope (UNES) and Pachakutik lawmakers plus others from the Christian Social Party, and the Democratic Left, the decision was reached, also with help from several independent legislators.

National Assembly Speaker Guadalupe Llori described the agreement as “transcendental.”

Among the people who will receive amnesties are Pichincha Mayor Paola Pabón, Congressman Virgilio Hernández, as well as the activist Christian González and Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities (Conaie) Chairman Leonidas Iza.

Of the 268 people amnestied, 60 belong to the case “judicialized for exercising the right to resistance and social protest of October 2019”; during the government of then-President Lenín Moreno; 153 others are from the “defenders of community territories” case; 12 from “administration of indigenous justice”, and, 43 to “defenders of nature.”

The report on the amnesties was drafted by the Constitutional Guarantees Commission.

“With this act of justice, peace has been returned to our comrades, the popular fighters, defenders of human rights, water and nature, and all their families, after having been prosecuted for exercising their right to resistance,” Llori said in a statement.

Llori also maintained that the approval of the amnesty report was “going to reconcile the country [and] that we have worked for the unity that our Ecuador was so much waiting for.”

“This is a transcendental day for #Ecuador: with 99 affirmative votes, the Plenary of the National Assembly, after an extensive session that began yesterday afternoon and concluded until 4 a.m. today [local time], granted amnesties to 268 people...,” Llori posted on Twitter.