Posted: Nov 9, 2021 00:58 GMT
Jaime Naranjo, from the Socialist Party (PS), is preparing to speak without pause in the presentation of the libel until another parliamentarian who is in quarantine for ‘close contact’ with the covid can rejoin.
The Chilean Chamber of Deputies continued on Monday an extensive debate on the constitutional accusation against President Sebastián Piñera, presented by a group of opposition parliamentarians as a result of the president’s involvement in the investigation known as Pandora Papers.
The motion to remove the President was promoted after it was released the sale of the mining company Dominga, in 2010, for 152 million dollars, in a transaction made in the tax haven of the British Virgin Islands and through a company owned by Piñera’s sons.
After 6:30 p.m. (Chilean time), the deputy Jaime Naranjo, of the Socialist Party (PS) and in charge of presenting the accusation in the Chamber, had already passed eight hours of intervention, thanks to the full reading of the accusatory libel.
This, with the idea of buying time for the session to extend until Tuesday, when deputies who are in preventive isolation will be able to join because they have been in close contact with those infected with coronavirus.
The opposition need 78 votes, out of a total of 155, for the lower house to approve the impeachment. And his problem is that a deputy from the Broad Front, Giorgio Jackson, could not attend the session because he was’ close contact with covid-19‘from presidential candidate Gabriel Boric, who tested positive last week.
“We have designed a strategy that will guarantee that we are going to obtain the votes to win the prosecution,” Naranjo acknowledged before the motion was taken to plenary discussion, according to the newspaper La Nación.
The deputy is willing to read a full letter of 1,300 pages, which would allow him to speak for 13 hours, according to his calculations.
Jackson, for his part, has confirmed that his tests were negative and is in a position to join the debate as of Tuesday.
For the peace of mind of those who consult me: 1. I had two PCR tests, both negative (one performed by SEREMI). Officials from SEREMI of Health, according to the official guideline of the Undersecretariat of Health (09/27/21), told me that today, Monday, November 8, is my last day of quarantine.
– Giorgio Jackson 🌳 (@GiorgioJackson) November 8, 2021
Meanwhile, the deputies Sebastián Torrealba and Catalina Del Real (National Renovation) announced that they will take Jaime Naranjo to the Chamber’s Ethics Commission, considering as “a show” and a “national shame” the strategy adopted by the socialist parliamentarian, reported Bíobio.
President Sebastián Piñera faces this second constitutional accusation for the aforementioned commercial transaction, held nine months after coming to power for the first time.
In his defense, the president maintains that he dissociated himself from those assets through blind trusts in 2009, and that what was revealed in Pandora’s papers was already investigated and was dismissed in 2017.
In addition to this procedure, which could leave him out of the Executive, the head of state faces an investigation led by the Public Ministry for “possible tax and bribery crimes” in the sale of the mining megaproject.
After the vote, if the opposition confirms the 77 seats it claims to have and adds the vote of the deputy isolated by covid, the matter would go to the Senate. Later, if that instance approves the accusation with two-thirds of the votes, the president would have to leave the Presidency, four months before the end of his term. If the presidential vacancy finally occurs, the line of succession continues with the Minister of the Interior and Public Security, Rodrigo Delgado, who would become the new head of state.
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