Chile’s opposition party has launched a bid to impeach President Sebastián Piñera, after his name emerged in an alleged dubious deal in the Pandora Papers leak.
Congressman Tomas Hirsch accused the president of using “his office for personal business”, in his presentation to Chile’s Congress.
Piñera has been accused of arranging the sale of a mining company to a close friend, as part of a deal which hinged on a regulatory decision which went in their favour.
He has denied any wrongdoing.
Details emerged as part of the Pandora Papers leak earlier this month, and Piñera is just one of many world leaders whose financial dealings have been exposed in the leak.
The files suggest President Piñera sold the Dominga mine – a copper and iron project in a fraught environmental area – to a childhood friend in 2010, nine months after he had assumed office.
The leaks also detail an integral payment in the deal was conditional on not establishing an area of environmental protection where the mining company operated, a demand of local environmental groups.
