CHILE’S OPPOSITION LAUNCH PUSH AGAINST PIÑERA
Opposition lawmakers in Chile say they will present a parliamentary charge that could lead to the removal of President Sebastian Piñera, whom the Pandora Papers investigation accused of having links to the sale of a mining company by his children’s company.
“All the opposition benches have agreed to initiate a constitutional indictment against President Sebastián Piñera,” Jaime Naranjo, a Socialist Party deputy, told the press on Tuesday.
A constitutional indictment aims to establish the responsibility of a senior public official. If successful, this one could lead to the removal of Piñera, less than six weeks before the first round of the presidential election.
Jaime Bellolio, a minister and spokesman for the Presidency, dismissed the charge as “an accusation based on a lie, solely based on short-term political and electoral reasons that shatter the idea of democracy.”
In the lower house, which will vote on the admissibility of the accusation, the opposition can count on the necessary half of the 155 potential votes plus one to approve it. It would then go to the Senate – where the political forces are more balanced – which will act as a jury, and where the vote of two-thirds of the 43 senators is required.
Piñera found himself at the centre of controversy after an investigation by the Chilean media outlets Labot and CIPER, which are part of the Pandora Papers, a vast trove of reports on the hidden wealth of world leaders researched by the ICIJ.
The investigation linked him to the 2010 sale of the mining company Dominga through a firm owned by his children, to businessman Carlos Delano – a close friend – for US$152 million. It said a large part of the operation was carried out in the British Virgin Islands.
In addition, it said a controversial clause was included that made the last payment of the business conditional on “not establishing an area of environmental protection in the area of operations of the mining company, as demanded by environmental groups.” That decision falls within the remit of the Chilean president.
Piñera denied the accusations and any conflict of interest, noting that all his assets were placed under a blind trust.
MEXICO
Mexico’s leader Andrés Manuel López Obrador this week called for an investigation into the more than 3,000 citizens who hid assets in offshore tax havens – including one of his ministers.
Three prominent Mexican business tycoons with a combined fortune of about US$30 billion are among those named in the leaked documents: mining magnate Germán Larrea, Modelo beer heiress María Asunción Aramburuzabala and Olegario Vázquez Aldir, who heads Grupo Empresarial Angeles, according to the Spanish daily El País.
Several politicians linked to López Obrador appear on the list, including Communications and Transport Minister Jorge Arganis, Senator Armando Guadiana and former presidential legal adviser Julio Scherer.
PARAGUAY
Former Paraguay President Horacio Cartes admitted Monday that he acquired a company in Panama in 2011, through which he said he had bought an apartment for his son in Miami, United States. “What he did was something absolutely legal,” the ex-head of state’s spokesman.