Chile: Opposition Files for Impeachment Against Piñera

After nearly a week of internal work in Congress, the Chilean opposition has introduced a constitutional accusation against President Sebastián Piñera for the case of the sale of mining asset Minera Dominga to his best friend Carlos Délano, a matter revealed by the so-called Pandora Papers.

The transaction was finalized in the Virgin Islands, a British overseas territory known for being a tax haven, as a payment agreed in three installments, the last of which would be conditioned to not declaring the area where the mining company intended to settle as a nature sanctuary.

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Opposition benches managed to obtain the 15 signatures to carry forward the process against the president, which will be presented this Wednesday, and a drawing of lots to elect the members of the Commission in charge of reviewing the pertinence of the action.

For the impeachment to pass to the Senate, the entity in charge of ultimately prosecuting the president, it must obtain 78 votes of the deputies. Once in the upper chamber, it will require two-thirds of the total number of votes to be approved.

"This Wednesday at 9 AM, we will present as opposition the Constitutional Accusation against President Piñera to end the impunity with which he has acted for years." 

The impeachment could be voted in the Chamber of Deputies at the beginning of November, meaning it could be resolved before the elections of November 21 by the Senate.

When the case of the sale of the Dominga mining company was revealed in the so-called Pandora Papers, President Piñera defended himself with the argument that he did not know about the matter because it was, as he said, a blind trust. Still, he could not explain the case of the third conditional payment, the central motive of the parliamentary accusation.