Ecuador's vice-president, Verónica Abad, warned this Friday that “in a few hours” a “coup d'état” will be carried out, allegedly planned by the president, Daniel Noboa.
"Within a few hours, the coup d'état planned and announced by President Daniel Noboa and his cabinet will be carried out," Abad said at a press conference, claiming to be the delegate of presidential functions while Noboa campaigns for the general elections in February, in which he is seeking support to govern until 2029.
The President of Ecuador announced that he will delegate the post of vice president to Cynthia Gellibert for three days while he campaigns for the elections.
Verónica Abad insisted that she has been the victim of a "brutal persecution, with a single objective: to seize power by force".
She recalled that on Saturday, in a video published on her social networks, she announced that she would assume the presidency the following day when, at the beginning of the electoral campaign, she assumed that Daniel Noboa would ask for her to step down, but that this ended up not happening.
In that video, Abad asked for support from several state institutions, including the armed forces, who responded that they were not deliberative and that it was up to them to abide by Noboa's will, a line repeated by the police.
Verónica Abad stressed that Noboa "decided on his own not to ask for leave" and "instead of following the law, he decided to appoint Cynthia Gellibert as President of the Republic", whom Noboa appointed last Saturday as vice-president.
Daniel Noboa considered that Abad was absent from office because she had not traveled to Ankara, Turkey, as a temporary advisor, as stipulated in a decree.
The government's assumptions that it would foment a coup d'état are "lies", Abad said, adding that "it is clear that this will bring not only political consequences, but also legal consequences, both nationally and internationally".
The Secretary General of the National Assembly (Parliament), Alejandro Muñoz, stated that Verónica Abad should assume the Presidency of Ecuador while Noboa campaigns.
The parliamentarian explained that the Legislature returned on Wednesday the decree sent by Noboa, in which he entrusted the presidency to Gellibert for three days, due to "legal and constitutional errors" related to the reasons for his temporary absence and who he designated as his replacement.
Noboa and Abad have been at odds since the beginning of the government, in November 2023, when he sent her as ambassador to Israel, and since then Abad has denounced alleged persecution to force her to resign and not delegate the presidency to him during the electoral campaign.
"I am ready to replace the President in a democratic manner and in accordance with the Constitution, but I was forcibly prevented from assuming my duties as vice-president," she said, recalling that at the end of December she was not even allowed to take up the vice-presidency after the courts lifted the five-month suspension imposed on her by the Ministry of Labor.
This sanction was based on the fact that she had not moved from Israel to Ankara in time, at a time of escalating tensions in the Middle East, although Abad has stated otherwise.
