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A poster reading "We demand the resignation of Pinera" hangs in front of the government building in Santiago, Chile
Photo: IVAN ALVARADO / REUTERS
Following the revelations in the Pandora Papers, the Chilean opposition has applied for impeachment proceedings against President Sebastián Piñera.
Piñera had "used his office to deal with personal affairs," said MP Tomas Hirsch on Wednesday in the lower house.
The background to this is the sale of a mining company by a company that belongs to Piñera's children and that, according to the Pandora Papers, was carried out in a tax haven.
The application is the first step in an impeachment process that could take several weeks.
Last week, the Chilean public prosecutor's office started investigations against the president for possible corruption.
However, Piñera said there was no conflict of interest in the deal in 2010 when he was already president.
The international research network ICIJ published the Pandora Papers at the beginning of October. The evaluation of almost twelve million documents from providers of offshore financial services burden more than 330 politicians and officials worldwide, including 35 current and former heads of state and government. They are said to have done a considerable amount of clandestine business through mailbox companies. However, the authorities must check on a case-by-case basis whether the business is illegal.
The Chilean media "Ciper" and "Labot" were also involved in the ICIJ publication.
According to their reports, the company in question had been sold to a businessman and friend of the President in the Virgin Islands, a well-known tax haven.
The condition for part of the payment was therefore that no environmental protection area was designated around the mine.
According to the research, the Piñeras government did not subsequently set up this protected area called for by environmentalists at the mine in question.
kim / AFP