Chilean congress votes to impeach President over Pandora Papers leak; moves to Senate

The lower house of Chile’s congress voted to impeach President Sebastian Piñera on Tuesday over corruption allegations stemming from the Pandora Papers leaks. The matter will now move on to the Chilean Senate for further review.

After nearly 22 hours of debate, the lower house approved the impeachment proceedings with the minimum 78 required votes. The Senate, however, will require a minimum of two-thirds of the 43 senators to remove Piñera from office.

The impeachment proceedings against the Chilean head of state come after the release of the Pandora Papers, a leak of nearly 12 million documents that reveal the offshore holdings of global political and business figures including 35 world leaders and 300 public officials from over 90 countries.

Chilean Attorney General Jorge Abbott opened the investigation after the papers revealed the sale of the Dominga mine, a mining company linked to the family of the Chilean head of state.

Marta Herrera, chief of the Anticorruption Division in the Public Prosecutor’s Office, said her agency would investigate potential bribery-related corruption charges — as well as tax violations, Reuters reported.

Chilean courts, however, examined and dismissed any irregularities in 2017.

"I have full confidence that the courts, as they have already done, will confirm there were no irregularities and also my total innocence," said Piñera. "As president of Chile I have never, never carried out any action nor management related to Dominga Mining."

The potential impeachment comes ahead of the Nov. 21 Chilean presidential and legislative elections, where conservative Jose Antonio Kast is ahead of the left-leaning Gabriel Boric in the polls.