Chilean Chamber of Deputies approves impeachment impeachment of President Sebastián Piñera

The Chamber of Deputies of Chile approved early this Tuesday to carry out a political trial to remove the country’s president, the conservative Sebastian Piñera, for the alleged irregularities in the sale in the British Virgin Islands of a controversial mining project.

After a marathon day of 24 hours, the deputies decided by 78 votes in favor and 67 against and 3 abstentions that the constitutional accusation presented on October 13 by the opposition passes to the Senate, the body that will be in charge of judging the president by the scandal revealed in the Pandora Papers investigation.

The opposition needed 78 of the 155 seats to approve the accusation that it presented on October 13 and in which He accused the ruler of having lacked the principle of “probity” and “seriously compromising the honor of the Nation.”

“I hope that this chamber approves the constitutional accusation, but (…) Chile will judge those who are allowing this impunity in the country ”, assured the deputy in charge of presenting the arguments in favor of impeachment, the socialist Jaime Naranjo, at the end of his very long speech.

NO TELEMATIC VOTE

Naranjo gave a speech lasting more than 15 hours to allow MP Giorgio Jackson, of the leftist Frente Amplio, to end his quarantine and be able to go to vote.

“This was a gesture of political solidarity. It is good at all times to teach, help and support the younger generations “said the 70-year-old MP.

Jackson was confined until 00:00 local time on Tuesday for being close contact with the presidential candidate Gabriel Boric, infected with covid-19 last week.

The telematic vote, which was in force during the toughest months of the pandemic, was not enabled on this occasion because the state of exception no longer governs, so Jackson’s presence in the hemicycle was essential.

The presence of the Christian Democratic deputy also generated concern Jorge Sabag, who in the afternoon had presented some physical discomfort, which delayed his arrival from the southern city of Chillán to the Lower House, in Valparaíso

The strategy chosen by the opposition to delay the vote, strongly criticized by the ruling party, is known as parliamentary filibuster. and it is used in different countries of the world, including the United States.

FINAL STRAIGHT OF THE CAMPAIGN

The accusation against the president will be discussed in the Senate -where a higher quorum of two thirds is required- just a few days before Chile holds the most momentous and uncertain elections in its recent history on November 21 in which it will be decided precisely the successor of Pinera.

, just nine months after he took office for his first non-consecutive term (2010-2014).

Pinera, one of the largest fortunes in Chile, defends that he dissociated himself from his businesses through blind trusts in 2009 and that what was revealed was already dismissed in 2017.

“With what we have experienced today and the way in which the accusation was prepared, improvised for the purpose of locating its discussion a few days before an election, how not to understand that politics is an activity that has a bad reputation”, The president’s lawyer, Jorge Gálvez, said in the hemicycle, who spoke for more than six hours.

The impeachment, which a parliamentary commission said on Friday was inadmissible in a non-binding report, It runs alongside an investigation in the Public Ministry for possible tax crimes and bribery in the same operation.

This is the second attempt to politically judge Pinera, after the failed attempt in November 2019 for alleged human rights violations in the midst of the social outbreak, the most serious protests since the end of the dictatorship.

Since the return to democracy in 1990, in Chile all the presidents have finished their term.

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