Europe, wtf are you doing?

In this issue, you'll read about:

• Chile's president has been (kind of) impeached
• Human rights abuses at the Belarus/Europe border

what happened last week

We are putting the president of Chile on trial after we found out he made some shady financial deals
Chile's President Sebastián Piñera has been impeached by one part of the country's parliament (the lower house of congress) because of what the Pandora Papers found out about his little financial secret. Now, a trial is being set up in the nation's senate.

• Refresher: Journalists worldwide worked together to find out which famous people around the world had any offshore financial dealings. The result is called the Pandora Papers aka 12 million documents that tell a global story of hidden wealth, tax avoidance and, in some cases, money laundering by some of the world's rich and powerful. Here's a 2-minute Tiktok explainer video if you're short on time.

What did the Pandora Papers find out about Piñera?
While president, he allegedly sold a mining company for US$152 million, through a firm owned by his children, to one of his closest friends. He says, 'I did not know anything about this. Plus, didn't you all question me about this back in 2017? This isn't new.'

How likely is it that he will be impeached for real for real?
Not very. The opposition doesn't have enough seats in the upper house of congress. Plus, a general election is set for November 21 and Piñera's term ends on March 11 of next year anyway.

Meanwhile in Ecuador, people are talking about their president's offshore bank "Banisi". Good-to-know fact: No government official, including Guillermo Lasso, is allowed to have properties in havens.

Why this matters:
Sebastián Piñera is one of the country's wealthiest people. And yes, the Pandora Papers kind of confirmed what we already knew but now, some of these leaders are facing some actual consequences and that's better than s*x.

Humans rights in Europe

We are risking the lives of thousands of people wanting to cross the Belarus border to the European Union
Since this summer, eleven people have died in Belarus at the border to Europe.

What's happened?
Thousands of people, most of them are from the Kurdistan region of Iraq, have traveled to Belarus in the hope of reaching the European Union, specifically Poland, Lithuania and Latvia and then make their way to Germany.

Why travel to Belarus?
Apparently, the government has made it super easy for people to get visas to enter Belarus and for them to cross over to Europe.

Why is Belarus doing that?
European Union nations believe that Belarus is doing that to seek revenge/put pressure on them for having imposed so many sanctions against the country after the super messy presidential election last year. The country's president, Alexander Lukashenko, has ruled the country since 1994...