Ecuador's President Guillermo Lasso issued a decree on Wednesday dissolving the National Assembly, ending impeachment proceedings against him.

Lasso is applying a constitutional mechanism known as "two-way death," allowing the president to call elections for his post and the assembly under certain circumstances.

He will rule by decree until a new National Assembly is sworn in.

Lasso accused the National Assembly of focusing "on destabilizing the government."

He called his move "democratic" and a way to give "people the power to decide their future in the next elections."

Soldiers and police officers blocked access around the National Assembly building in the capital, Quito, early on Wednesday.

What led to the impeachment process

Lasso's impeachment trial opened in the National Assembly on Tuesday.

Lawmakers had accused Lasso of not intervening to end a contract between the state-owned oil transport company and a private tanker company. They argued Lasso knew the agreement was full of irregularities and would cost the state millions in losses.

He denied wrongdoing, insisting there was no proof, and suggested the trial was politically motivated.

A final impeachment vote was expected within five days.

What happens next?

Ecuador's electoral court must decide on a date for new elections within seven days.

The country's powerful Confederation of Indigenous Nationalities said Lasso's decision constituted a "dictatorship."

Its leader, Leonidas Iza Salazar, said Lasso "launched a cowardly self-coup with the help of the police and the armed forces, without citizen support" as he faced "imminent dismissal."

The group last year led protests throughout Ecuador that almost unseated Lasso.

In neighboring Peru, President Pedro Castillo was arrested in December when he tried to dissolve the country's congress so he could rule by decree. He is awaiting trial on charges of rebellion.

lo/jcg (AFP, AP, Reuters, dpa)