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A30 world news
Diaranson 10 november 2021

Chilean president impeached over Pandora Papers revelation

The Senate deliberations on did not do so, despite appeals ity needed for impeachment,
his fate will occur in the heat from environmentalists. But Socialist Deputy Jaime Nara-
of an election campaign to nor did subsequent govern- njo effectively stalled for 14
replace him in any case. The ments. hours, reading a series of
first round of general elec- documents, until Deputy
tions is set for Nov. 21 and When investigators looked Giorgio Jackson was able to
Piñera’s term ends on March into the case a few years later, enter the chamber to vote
11. Chile does not permit Piñera said he had not been following a mandatory quar-
presidential reelection to involved in managing the antine period after testing
consecutive terms. companies and had not even positive for the coronavirus.
realized the connection with
The accusation stems from Dominga. Another deputy voted despite
publication of the so-called awaiting results of a corona-
Pandora Papers, which re- The president’s office noted virus test. He slipped into the
vealed offshore financial last month that Piñera’s first building through a side door
dealings of prominent figures term as president, from 2010 to avoid health checks.
around the world, includ- to 2014, hadn’t started when
ing Piñera, one of Chile’s the sale was agreed to, that The minister of the presi-
(AP) — President Se- Sixty-seven legislators voted wealthiest people. prosecutors and courts de- dency, Juan José Ossa, called
bastián Piñera was im- against the “constitutional ac- cided in 2017 that no crime the impeachment “a political
peached Tuesday by the cusation,” including several The leaked documents re- had been committed and that show, a media show. It’s sad
lower house of Chile’s members of the opposition. vealed that one of Piñera’s Piñera had not been involved. for democracy.” Pro-govern-
congress, setting up a trial Others abstained or were ab- sons used offshore compa- It said all due taxes were paid ment Deputy Andrés Molina
in the nation’s Senate over sent. nies in the British Virgin Is- in Chile. said, “It causes me shame,
whether to remove him lands for sale of the Dominga personally.”
due to allegations he fa- As in the U.S. and many mining project, which his Piñera’s holdings are now
vored the sale of a family other nations, a Senate trial family co-owned. managed in a blind trust, ac- Just before voting, Jackson
property while in office. follows impeachment and cording to the statement. said, “There are people who
Piñera is unlikely to be re- The final payment on the think what happened yester-
The vote to accept the moved by the 43-member mine’s sale in 2011 hinged on The national prosecutor’s of- day and today in the chamber
charges got the bare mini- upper house, where the op- the government declining to fice has said it is is once again is shameful. But I think what
mum of 78 votes needed in position has only 24 of the 29 declare its location in north- investigating the case, how- is shameful is having a presi-
the 155-member Chamber votes needed to oust a presi- central Chile a nature pre- ever. dent who speculates.”
of Deputies and followed a dent. serve. The government, by
marathon 20-hour session. that time headed by Piñera, In order to get the major-

Mexican leader: Richest in world should pay to help poorest

(AP) — Mexico’s presi- was presiding over the coun- López Obrador said in the ing with the causes and not “People in the richest coun-
dent warned Tuesday that cil, where Mexico is serving a coming days Mexico will just the consequences.” tries are getting third doses
the world is sliding from two-year term and holds the propose to the U.N. General of the COVID-19 vaccine,
“civilization to barbarity” presidency this month. The Assembly “a world plan for Guterres, who addressed the while only 5% of Africans
and called for the thou- country chose the topic of fraternity and well-being” to council before the Mexican are fully vaccinated,” he said.
sand richest people, the Tuesday’s meeting: “Mainte- guarantee the right to a de- president spoke, said the “Even before the pandemic,
thousand largest private nance of International Peace cent life for 750 million peo- COVID-19 pandemic “has the world’s billionaires held
corporations and the 20 and Security: Exclusion, In- ple trying to exist on less than amplified misery and in- more wealth than 60% of the
major economies to im- equality and Conflicts.” $2 a day. equalities,” pushing around global population — and that
prove life for the 750 mil- 120 million more people into gap has widened enormous-
lion people now existing As an example of exclusion He said the proposal can be poverty, with millions around ly.”
on less than $2 dollars a and inequality, he pointed financed with money from the globe facing hunger and
day. to the distribution of COV- three sources: an annual vol- famines and the world facing The U.N. chief said rising
ID-19 vaccines, where phar- untary contribution of 4% “the deepest global recession inequality is a factor of rising
Andrés Manuel López Ob- maceutical companies sold of the income of the world’s since World War II.” instability.
rador told the U.N. Security 94% and only 6% went to the 1,000 richest people, a simi-
Council that this proposal U.N. World Health Organi- lar 4% contribution from the
could generate around $1 bil- zation’s COVAX program for 1,000 largest private corpora-
lion annually, which should distribution to poor coun- tions according to their mar-
go directly to the world’s tries. ket value, and 0.2% of the
poorest people “without any GDP of nations in the Group
intermediaries, through a “The spirit of cooperation is of 20 largest global econo-
card or personalized elec- losing ground to the desire mies.
tronic wallet.” for profit, and this is leading
us to slide from civilization López Obrador accused the
In a scathing speech to the into barbarity,” López Obra- United Nations, with U.N.
U.N.’s most powerful body, dor warned. “We are moving Secretary-General Antonio
the Mexican leader sharply forward, alienated, forgetting Guterres listening, of failing
criticized the world’s nations moral principles, and turning to help those at the bottom
for not addressing corruption our backs on the pain of hu- of economic ladder, saying:
in all its forms -- political, manity.” “Nothing really substantial
moral, economic, legal, fis- has been done to benefit the
cal and financial -- which he “If we are not able to reverse poor in the history of this or-
called “the main problem of these trends through specific ganization.”
the planet.” actions, we will not be able to
resolve any of the other prob- “But it is never too late to en-
López Obrador, on only his lems affecting the peoples of sure that justice is done,” he
second foreign trip since tak- the world,” he said. said. “It is time to act today
ing office in December 2018, against marginalization, deal-