In Chile, MPs pave way for impeachment procedure for President Piñera

Published on : 11/09/2021 – 13:31

In Chile, the deputies approved, Tuesday, November 9, an impeachment procedure launched against President Sebastian Piñera for the controversial sale of a mining company, carried out in a tax haven and revealed by the international investigation of the Pandora Papers.

“He acted by seeking his personal benefit and that of his own family, using information to which he had access thanks to his functions of president”, denounced, during a debate started Monday morning, the socialist deputy Jaime Naranjo, who spoke for 15 hours, reading a 1,300-page text and calling for “an end to impunity”.

“I beg you, gentlemen of the deputies, reject this unjust and inadmissible constitutional accusation”, for his part launched the president’s lawyer, Jorge Gálvez.

Non-place in 2017

Sebastian Piñera, one of the political leaders appearing in the Pandora Papers, the investigation disclosed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), has denied any conflict of interest in the sale of the mining company to a close friend and claims his “total innocence”.

The right-wing president, one of the richest men in Chile, believes that in 2017 there was already “an in-depth investigation by the prosecution service” and that it is “a case closed by justice”.

However, the prosecution argued that the facts related to the sale and purchase of the mining company “were not expressly included” in the 2017 dismissal decision.

Unprotected area

According to an investigation by Chilean media CIPER and LaBot, members of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the mining company Minera Dominga has been sold to businessman Carlos Alberto Délano, a friend of the head of the State, for 152 million dollars, a transaction operated in the British Virgin Islands.

Payment for the transaction was to be made in three installments, and contained a controversial clause that made the final payment conditional on “an environmental protection zone not being established on the mining company’s operating area, such as ask environmental groups “.

According to the investigation, Sebastian Piñera’s government ultimately failed to protect the area where mining was planned, so the third payment was made.

Race against time

For deputy Tomas Hirsch (humanist action, left), President Piñera “thus prevented a single area on the planet from being declared a nature reserve, solely to promote his personal interests”.

After the green light from the Chamber of Deputies, controlled by the opposition (83 out of 155 seats), it will be the turn of the Senate to pronounce on the constitutional indictment against President Sebastian Piñera by a two-thirds vote .

A race against time for the opposition, before the general elections, where a new president will be elected and the Parliament renewed, scheduled for November 21.

With AFP