This Monday it was expected to have a long day in the Lower House to try to gather the largest number of votes. The president rejects any action.
The impeachment against the president of Chile, Sebastián Piñera, promoted after the publication of Pandora’s papers, faced a marathon day in the Lower House of Congress this Monday, November 8, full of questions due to the absence of two parliamentarians who must make quarantine.
The opposition’s calculations are not very optimistic and suggest that the lack of deputy and presidential candidate Gabriel Boric (who tested positive for COVID-19 last week) and that of Giorgio Jackson (isolated for being “close contact”) could make that the 78 votes necessary to advance the accusation that seeks to remove the president from office.
An opposition deputy, Jaime Naranjo, of the Socialist Party, announced an intervention that will last thirteen hours and that could extend the session until Tuesday with the aim that Jackson can be included in the vote (whose isolation would end tonight), which according to the regulation can only be in person.
“I have a 1,300-page speech. I will speak as long as necessary until Jackson is in the room, ”he warned.
“According to the official guideline, today Monday is my last day of quarantine (…). To the peace of mind of those who consult me, I had two PCR tests, both negative, “said Jackson for his part on Twitter.
The session is expected to conclude at dawn so that the opponent can go to vote. If approved, the impeachment must also bypass the Senate, where it requires a quorum greater, two-thirds.
The origin of the accusation, promoted by the opposition, lies in the alleged irregularities in the sale of Minera Dominga by a company owned by Piñera’s children in the British Virgin Islands, just nine months after he took office for his first term (2010-2014).
As revealed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), the project was sold to the businessman and family friend Carlos Alberto Délano for 152 million dollars, 138 of which were made in the tax haven.
The president, who presented his defense in writing ten days ago, has maintained in public appearances that he had dissociated himself from his businesses through blind trusts in 2009 and that what was revealed in Pandora’s papers was already investigated and dismissed in 2017.
During the day, the president’s lawyer decided not to invoke the previous question, a formal objection that could have lengthened the session even more.
“We have decided that we are not going to deduct it for purposes of going to the fund, because we are very interested in showing that (…) the constitutional accusation lacks merits,” said attorney Jorge Gálvez.
The impeachment trial takes place during the last months of the mandate of Piñera, a billionaire who enjoys very low approval according to the polls and who will leave office in March.
This is the second attempt to remove him after the November 2019 attempt for alleged human rights violations amid massive protests against inequality, the most serious since the end of the dictatorship.
Since the return to democracy in 1990, no president has been removed from office. (I)
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