On Tuesday, Chilean deputies approved a mechanism to impeach President Sebastian Pinera over the disclosure of the Pandora Papers about the sale of a mining company by a company belonging to his sons.
After the approval of the opposition-controlled House of Representatives (83 out of 155 seats), the Senate is supposed to vote on the mechanism by a two-thirds majority before the general elections, on November 21, which will produce a new president and parliament.
What are the charges of corruption? How can the president retire? Why can we care about the matter? This is what we are going to talk about in the current post.
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What is the story of the president’s accusation?
On October 2, a large set of documents were published called “Pandora’s Documents”, a process of investigative journalism that was used by hundreds of journalists and press institutions around the world who participated in the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, including the Chilean “Syber” and “Labot” institutions.
These documents revealed secret accounts of official officials, billionaires and businessmen, involved in corruption and tax evasion cases, documented by more than 11 million documents and data of more than 14,000 tax haven companies.
Among the people I spoke about in these documents is the President of Chile, the businessman “Sebastian Pinera”, who benefited from his authority in the process of selling the “Dominiga” mining project through a company to his son registered in the “British Virgin Islands”, which is a haven for tax evasion known in the whole world.
This deal took place between his son’s company and his friend, businessman “Carlos Alberto Delano” during his first term as President of the Republic (2010-2015), for $152 million, paid in 3 installments.
Until here, the whole issue is buying and selling, and this may remain normal, but the documents revealed that the third batch was linked to the condition that the project would not be converted into a nature reserve based on popular demands from environmental protection associations in Chile, which were demanding it, and this is something linked here to a decision of the government and the president. , who had previously rejected a company’s offer to allocate a thermal power plant in the same area due to environmental protection.
– But in a deal to sell his share of the project to his friend, he was willing to respond to the demands to protect the environment in the area of the mining project by any means, in return for the success of the deal and receiving the third financial payment from the contract, and thus this deal contains suspicion of corruption and receiving a bribe in addition to a crime of tax evasion.
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What happened after this scandal was published in the media?
After the publication of these investigations in the press and the media, the Public Prosecution Office in Chile announced the start of investigations into this case, and opposition representatives began to perform their role in the investigation and oversight, and a session was actually held on Monday in the Chilean House of Representatives. This session lasted for more than 20 hours It ended at dawn on the hills.
– This session was a historic event, because only one representative, the Socialist MP “Jaime Naranjo,” spoke for 15 hours out of the 20 hours, which was the duration of the entire session. The entire document consists of 1,300 pages.
– Paradoxically, the speech took all this time because the opposition needed an additional vote in order to remain a majority in the indictment of the president to be dismissed, and the session was lengthened in this way so that the quarantine period for one of the opposition MPs who was in contact with a person infected with Corona, was not able to leave the quarantine except completely At 1 am, after that, he was actually able to attend the session and vote, and all of this without restricting this deputy or the opposition deputies.
The important thing is that he was defending the president from some of the other representatives and the president’s lawyer who attended. The president himself said in statements before the session that a judicial investigation had taken place before that in 2017, after he left power, and the judiciary closed this case because there is nothing clear to condemn him.
– But opposition deputies responded to this argument that he did not publish the content of the sales contract, and one of the opposition deputies said that the president refused to enhance protection for nature and the environment in the project area, which is located next to a nature reserve where “Humboldt penguins” are endangered species that are only found in Chile. And Peru, only for his personal interest and financial benefit from the decision to sell.
Of course, that is why Chilean students, wearing hats in the shape of penguins and carrying an effigy of President Sebastian Pinera, organized rallies to demand that he be held accountable after his name appeared in the “Pandora Documents.”
The session ended with voting in favor of accusing the president in the House of Representatives, which has 155 members, with a majority of 78 votes. other additional.
Presidential spokesman Jaime Pelolio commented on the House of Representatives’ decision, describing it as “an accusation based on a lie and based only on short-term political and electoral reasons, and it topples the idea of democracy.”
As for the president, who denied these accusations before, he tried to reduce the pressure of the press on him and direct it to another issue, so he declared a state of emergency in 4 governorates due to unrest in the south of the country, but this did not change much in the course of the accusations.
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What do we gain from all of this?
The first thing is that in democratic countries, it is possible for the press to work in it, and serious press investigations look after the wealth of officials, including the President of the Republic, follow the tracks of his wealth, and see suspicions of corruption or not. He does any serious job, even a former supervisory official like Hisham Geneina, who arrested journalist Moataz and Danan because of a mere interview with dozens of other journalists who are imprisoned, and all of this is silenced in favor of scandalous journalism and sensationalism.
– The second thing is that he is the head of the state in any country. He can be involved in an incident of corruption, because he is a human being and an immodest costume. It is possible that he is honorable and continues to be honorable, and it is possible that the authority and position tempt him with corruption or to financially benefit from his job and his authority, and for this reason democratic states and societies protect themselves with the serious press, And impartial parliaments, and an independent judiciary.
– Adina Shaifin, the attorney general appointed by the president is the one who announces the opening of an investigation into a corruption incident raised by the press concerning the president without taking into account the position or its importance because the law imposed on everyone is normal.
– We saw a parliament convened to discuss the issue of Z. D and indict the president, without the majority party refusing to bring up the issue for discussion, nor the speaker of parliament restricting the deputies in their right to debate and question, nor the security services contacting the deputies and threatening them if they talk about the issue, this is a parliament seriously elected by the citizens Indeed, therefore, they are working seriously because people are holding them accountable.
– We also saw a democracy of supportive deputies, who, although they are supporters of the president and in the same party, but they refused the discussion, and they did not decide to boycott the session, for example, in order to sign a quorum, nor did they object to the fact that a representative in the opposition speaks for 15 hours, which could remain the longest speech in the history of parliaments In the world, no, it is normal to speak with words, and the accusation is confronted with refutation and response, and argument with argument, and in the end it will be resorted to voting. So normal.
No one threatened or said that the state would collapse, nor that this freedom was wrong, and no one arrested journalists, nor confiscated newspapers, nor shut down the Internet, nor did any behavior disrupt the discussion of this corruption case. Because in a state whose institutions respect citizens, and there are citizens who can change any official through free and fair elections! So normal.
We must also know that popular awareness of fighting corruption is important, because it is what will force the government, the president, and others to submit to demands for transparent and fair investigations.
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At about the same time in Egypt, we have an incident of corruption in the Ministry of Health, in which leaders in the Ministry are accused and investigated with them, and many talk has been raised about that the case is an incident of bribery from an investment hospital, and there is talk about the involvement of high leaders in the Ministry, and we have said that for more than two weeks, there is no single statement It clearly illustrates the incident of corruption affecting some of the officials, and of course no press dares to ask or discuss the matter because the punishment will be great.
– We hope that in Egypt we see, on any day in our lives, a part of democracy that makes people speak without fear or worry about punishment or reprimand, and we see a serious press that turns behind the real issues and investigates the facts and suspicions of corruption for any official.
We also hope to see a serious parliament. People really elect it. They do not impose certain names on it. It discusses real issues, and delivers decisions and results in it. It is not just a space for venting, chatting, and salvation.
– Of course, we live and see a truly independent judiciary. No one can interfere in his work, including the prime minister. He cannot change the judge, stop investigations, publish untrue news, or prevent the press and people from publishing and talking about suspicions of corruption.
– That is why we will talk about the models of democratic countries or those in a democratic transition stage, and the democratic practice is what actually protects them from abuse of power and from the corruption incidents that can occur due to the temptations of positions.
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The President of the Republic of Chile is subject to removal from office .. due to accusations of corruption
