[2] In the Pandora Papers leak by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Lasso faced his first controversy in October 2021 when it was reported that he had foreign bank accounts in a tax haven created in an effort to prevent others from seeing his net worth; an act that is illegal for public officials in Ecuador.

On 9 January 2023, La Posta [es] published a report titled El Gran Padrino ("The Great Godfather"), in which it detailed an alleged corruption plot within public companies centered around Danilo Carrera Drouet, brother-in-law of President Guillermo Lasso.

[7] La Posta later presented audio recordings of Carrera's associate, Rubén Cherres, saying that he provided $1.5 million for the presidential campaign of Lasso during the 2021 Ecuadorian general election.

[15][16] The BBC noted that since 88 lawmakers had previously voted in favor of the impeachment trial, it meant that Lasso faced the possibility of being removed from power.

[21][22] That same day, Lasso ordered the militarization of the Legislative Palace in Quito, preventing access to the personnel working in the building and to the assembly members, who planned to continue with the session debating the president's impeachment.

[16] On the same day that he dissolved the parliament, Lasso issued a decree-law granting tax cuts for the middle class in the country; this was heavily criticized, however, and an appeal to stop him was filed within hours.

[1][21] He justified invoking the constitutional measure by calling it the best solution and said he wanted to give the Ecuadorian people the "power to decide" the country's future in the upcoming election.

[17] After muerte cruzada was invoked, the former Assembly members of the Democratic Left and the Social Christian Party asked the Constitutional Court to rule on the unconstitutionality of the decree, arguing that the president's decision had no legal merit.

[23] On 18 May, several members of the National Assembly who were ousted by Lasso's decree publicly denounced it and questioned its constitutional merit because the country was not facing an urgent crisis at the time it was invoked.