SANTIAGO, Chile | The Senate of Chile voted on Tuesday against the dismissal of President Sebastian Piñera, suspected of conflict of interest in the sale of a mining company in 2010 carried out in a tax haven and revealed by the “Pandora Papers”.
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This vote puts an end to the impeachment procedure that was approved last week by the Chamber of Deputies, where the opposition has a majority.
In the Senate, also dominated by the opposition, a two-thirds majority, or 29 votes, was needed. However, only 24 senators voted for impeachment, 18 against and one abstained.
“The defense categorically dismantled each of the facts set out in the reasons for this political trial,” said pro-Piñera senator Francisco Chahuan.
Mr. Piñera’s lawyer, Jorge Galvez, said at the start of the Senate session that the accusation was “devoid of any factual and legal basis”.
The procedure was triggered after revelations from the “Pandora Papers”, an investigation by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
According to these documents, the mining company Minera Dominga was sold in 2010 by a company owned by the children of the head of state to a businessman, friend of the president, for 152 million dollars, a transaction carried out in the Virgin Islands. British.
Payment for the transaction was to be made in three installments and contained a controversial clause that made the final payment conditional on no environmental protection zone being established on the mining company’s operating area.
According to the investigation, Sebastian Piñera’s government ultimately failed to protect the area where mining was planned, so the third payment was made.
Socialist President Michelle Bachelet (2006-2010), who had succeeded Mr. Piñera, had nevertheless recommended that the area rich in biodiversity which is home to a colony of Humboldt penguins, an endangered species, be protected.
The right-wing president, who is also one of the richest men in Chile, had denounced an accusation based “on false or misleading facts” and estimated that the case had already been judged in 2017 and is the subject of a no -place.
At the opening of a new criminal investigation in early October, the prosecution had however argued that the facts related to the sale and purchase of the mining company “were not expressly included” in the decision of dismissal. .
The end of the impeachment process against Mr. Piñera comes before the November 21 elections, in which a new president will be appointed, and Parliament renewed.