“Independence of powers yes, but indifference never,” that was the phrase with which President Guillermo Lasso began the national broadcast on the night of December 15, 2022.

In a national broadcast on Thursday night, President Lasso emphatically stated that his government respects all the functions of the State, “but this does not imply remaining silent when said functions fail in their obligations,” he added.

He said that his government will never run over the judicial function, “we support good judges, there are [good judges].”

However, he said, “those bad officials who hinder justice, instead of serving it, will be exposed.”

“Those who obstruct it will be brought before the court of public opinion where they will have to answer.”

And he continued, “today, in the midst of a war against drug trafficking, we need to know that our judges can discern between good and evil (…) they have a new opportunity, because the Police have handed over El Gordo Luis’ again, take advantage of it.”

Before that, he made a long introduction in which he said, “justice is blind, but that, judges and prosecutors, does not give you a free hand to turn a blind eye.”

After which, he evoked the case of the criminal known as ‘El Gordo Luis,’ allegedly involved in the death of the director of the El Inca prison.

He said that after his capture, the public expected an exemplary punishment, but that apparently “our judges are guilty of extreme nobility,” he said, making a sign of quotation marks with his fingers as a sign of irony.

“The judge in charge seems to believe that ‘El Gordo Luis’ is a first timer in the underworld, no one informed him that he is one of the leaders of Los Lobos and has nine legal proceedings [against him].”

He said with irony that “the ‘good judge’ released the thug, and that the Prosecutor’s Office did not request preventive detention and told him to appear once a week in court.”

He reported that the subject did not appear, falsified a certificate and deceived the judicial authority. He was captured again by the Police, although this time he was carrying seven kilos of cocaine, rifles and pistols.

Lasso added with more irony that, “Ecuadorians, there are only two options here: the first is that the judge be excessively noble, to use a word appropriate to the television schedule. I don’t even want to mention the second option, but you are thinking about it.

Judges, the patience of the citizenry is running out. Judges are there to deliver justice, not to prevent it; to speed it up, not slow it down. It is one thing to be impartial… and another to be indifferent.”