The Senate of Chile on Tuesday rejected the constitutional accusation against the president, Sebastián Piñera, with which the opposition sought his dismissal for alleged irregularities in the sale of a controversial mining project, which were revealed in the Pandora Papers.
The 29 votes needed for the impeachment of the president were not reached during the debate that lasted for seven hours. The Upper House has 43 senators.
The accusatory text consisted of two parts: the first indicated that the president had violated the Constitution and the laws; and the second, of having seriously compromised the honor of the nation. Both were voted separately on the premises.
In the end, the first one got 24 votes in favor, 18 against and 1 abstention, while that the second had 22 in favor, 20 against and 1 abstention. Neither of them reached the required three-quarters .
Opinions divided
Senator Manuel José Ossandón, from the center-right Renovación Nacional (RN) party, considered that the accusation against Piñera has “no probative support”.
“The accusation does not provide any antecedent that proves that the president sought to favor his family , there is no email, no mail, no chat , nor a statement … there is nothing, “said Ossandón in statements collected by the Senate.
On the contrary, Senator Isabel Allende, of the Socialist Party (PS) of Chile, considered that the accusations constitutional laws “ must proceed in exceptional situations especially in the case of the first democratically elected authority of the country.”
The rejection of the accusation was given after the approval that the Lower House gave the text on November 9 with 78 votes in favor, 67 against and three abstentions . In that instance, they needed exactly 78 votes to go ahead with the proposal.
In October, the Prosecutor’s Office opened an ex officio investigation against the president after the publication of leaked documents known as Pandora Papers, in which alleged irregularities were exposed in the sale of shares of the controversial Dominga mining project in 2010 , which took place in the British Virgin Islands, a territory considered a tax haven.
Piñera, from 67 years old and one of the richest men in Chile, defended himself against the accusations that he called “unacceptable”, and alleged that the details of the agreement of 2010 were part of a previous judicial investigation that had not finally been found breaches of legislation.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office clarified shortly after that it would specifically analyze the operation on Dominga, which had not been the main object from previous research.
Dominga, which provides for the exploitation of iron and copper, has been generating controversy in Chile due to its proximity to the archipelago of Humboldt , a set of eight islands and islets that protect one of the richest ecosystems in the world with species such as whales, penguins and chungungos (a species of otter).
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