Business deal revealed in Pandora Papers: Chile’s Senate declines to impeach president

SANTIAGO: Chile’s Senate declined Tuesday to impeach President Sebastian Pinera over a business deal revealed in the Pandora Papers leaks, refusing to go along with the lower chamber of Congress in opening proceedings against him.

The vote was 24 in favor of impeachment, 18 against and one abstention. Those voting to charge the billionaire president with corruption needed at least 29 votes to pass the measure. “The defense has forcefully disproven each one of the facts that are presented as causes of this impeachment,” Senator Francisco Chahuan, from Pinera’s center-right National Renewal party. This means the case is closed, with no punishment of Pinera over the controversial sale of a mining company in 2010 when he was serving the first of two non-consecutive terms.