The Chilean Senate could vote on the removal of President Sebastian Pinera on Tuesday, initiated by the center-left opposition, which is seeking to oust him after he allegedly sold a family business during his first government.
This crucial session comes five days after Chile’s referendum on electing a president for 2022-2026, the winner of which will receive a decree on March 11, 2022, by Pinara or his successor, if allowed. Will be removed. If this happens, he will be elected by Congress as an alternative from among any citizen to complete his term.
Pinora needs 29 of the 43 Senate votes to be removed. The opposition has 24 votes, coming from the remaining five government legislators, which will be difficult. If convicted, he could not hold any public office for five years.
The president remains in office after being ousted, and is barred from leaving Chile until the Senate’s decision is pending. The charges against him will be voted separately as “blatantly violating the Constitution and the law” and “seriously compromising the dignity of the nation”.
Senator Isabel Allende, the daughter of former Socialist President Salvador Allende, who was ousted by the military in 1973, was the eighth speaker to speak before the full session, supporting both allegations: “Presidents must end their terms, but this is a different case.”
Some senators did not use their time, while only official Juan Jose Osanton voted so far. “I saw myself only with assumptions,” he said in the indictment against Pinora. He added, “I do not intend to measure the intentions, but to analyze the facts. In my opinion, there is no evidence to support the case. Ossandón maintains many differences with the President, both publicly and privately.
The Senate will meet until all legislators have voted on the indictment, and they will have 15 minutes to confirm their decision and then pronounce the indictment separately.
The session began Tuesday with the intervention of three indictments, and continued with the issuance of Piñera’s evictions, on the basis that 78 had voted in favor, 68 against and three had not voted a week earlier, leading to the trial being adjourned a week earlier. His lawyer.
Delegates said Pinara wanted to sell a family mining and port project, agreeing to a tax haven to avoid taxes, affecting ethics policy and severely damaging Chile’s reputation.
After a 2017 judicial hearing, which included a review of 1,800 emails, Pinera accused defense attorney George Calves of “enjoying a legally established innocence,” dismissing him after deciding he had not interfered with the 2010 transaction or used privileged information.
He said the sale of the family business was made by a company in which the ruler’s children had “uncontrolled” shares, and that the facts suggested that after the end of his term in 2014, Pinera became aware of the transaction. The Constitution establishes that a ruler can be politically prosecuted for up to six months after his term of office expires.
Following the revelation of the Pandora documents, an international press inquiry into the alleged negotiations at the tax havens was filed by 16 opposition representatives in October, in which a deal was struck in December 2010 over the sale of their children’s mining and port business. The zone in which the company will be located has not been declared an exemption, park or national reserve. Four months ago Pinera relocated a thermoelectric plant built on the same site.
For the same facts, the National Attorney’s Office launched a criminal investigation to determine whether the revelations in the Pandora documents could “alter criminal roles” related to bribery, bribery or tax crimes.
This is the second test that Pinara will face during his second term (2018-2022). The first was at the end of 2019 and, according to most delegates, was not processed because it did not meet the required requirements.
