Chile’s Senate votes to impeach President Sebastian Pinera

Santiago. – Senate Chile It met on Tuesday to vote on impeachment Sebastian Pinera, which was started by the center-left opposition seeking his impeachment, claiming that he preferred to sell a family business during his first government.

The crucial session comes just five days after Chileans go to the polls to elect a president for the 2022-2026 term, the winner of which will receive the order on March 11, 2022 from Pinera Or his successor if separated.

Why Pinera For removal, 29 out of 43 Senate votes are needed. The opposition has 24 votes, while the remaining five votes must come from government lawmakers, which is difficult.

The hearing began with a brief presentation of the case by Senate Secretary, Raúl Guzmán, and continued with the intervention of three deputies accused on the grounds that led the House of Representatives to accept the trial by 78 votes to 68 against and three abstentions. The senators will then hear two other impeached representatives to defend the president and back-to-back responses from the speakers.

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“We are talking about corruption,” Rep. Gael Yeomans said, adding that Pinera She preferred to sell tax haven-approved family property to avoid taxes, which “contradicts the principle of integrity enshrined in the Constitution.”

His colleague Leonardo Soto told senators that “they will have to choose which side they are on … among those who accept corruption” or against it “and Gabriel Silber concluded that the abuse of integrity” has seriously damaged many democracies in our country. the region and overthrow the governments.”

The charges against the president are “openly violating the constitution and laws” and “dangerously compromising the honor of the nation” and will be voted on separately.

In the afternoon, lawmakers will each have 15 minutes to make their vote, which will extend the session until early Wednesday morning. When the deputies pleaded guilty, they met for 22 hours.

Pinera He remains in office after accepting the accusation and is only prohibited from leaving Chile Waiting for the Senate’s decision. In the event of his impeachment, Congress will choose his successor from among any citizen who must complete his term.

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The accusation was filed by 16 opposition lawmakers after they saw the Pandora Papers, an international journalistic investigation into negotiations in tax havens that included a contract in December 2010 to sell a mining and port company owned by their sons that stipulated one of the payments. To the fact that the area in which the company will be located has not yet been declared a national park or reserve. four months ago Pinera Transferred thermoelectric station to be built in the same place.

The president maintains that he learned about the business after the end of his first term in 2014, that the acts he was accused of committing were stipulated, and that a judicial investigation into his businesses’ efforts had impeached him in 2017. The constitution states that the governor can be prosecuted politically during his term and up to six months after the end of his term his period.

This is the second trial you are facing Pinera During his second term (2018 – 2022). The first was the end of 2019, when he was accused of committing human rights violations during the police crackdown on mass protests, which were not addressed for not meeting the necessary requirements, according to most MPs.

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