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Paraguay Senate Resumes Impeachment Of President Santiago Peña After Ueno Bank Collapse
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Senate resumes impeachment proceedings against President Santiago Peña amid banking crisis. Senate rejects Peña’s 72-hour defense delay and summons him to appear.
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Impeachment resumes in Paraguay
Paraguay’s Senate resumed impeachment proceedings against President Santiago Peña after lawmakers filed impeachment charges on Thursday despite his resignation, and the lower house approved the charges in a 78-0 vote. The Senate’s session followed Peña’s request for a 72-hour extension to prepare his defense, and the proceedings were tied to the collapse of Ueno Bank after Paraguay’s central bank intervened citing breaches of minimum solvency requirements. Ueno Bank held $850m in public funds and the collapse left more than half of Paraguay’s population without access to their accounts.
“The proceedings follow a vote in Paraguay’s lower house of Congress, where lawmakers overwhelmingly approved impeachment charges against Pena in a 78-0 vote.”
The National Police of Paraguay deployed a large security operation in front of Congress as impeachment proceedings began, with access to the Congress and its surroundings blocked since early morning in Asunción. Peña said, “My greatest wish is that the return of those funds be guaranteed, that the deposit guarantee fund fulfil its purpose, and that public funds — as well as the resources that belong to all Paraguayans — be protected.”
Defense delay rejected
The Paraguayan Senate rejected President Santiago Peña’s request for a 72-hour extension to prepare his defense in the impeachment process, and the decision summoned Peña or his lawyers to appear before the plenary. Folha de S.Paulo reported that Peña’s two lawyers arrived at the Congress around 1 p.m., while defense lawyer Adolfo Ferreiro said the impeachment request was based on fragile evidence described as “scissors-proof.” Peña told the Senate he had received at 22:15 on Thursday a 15-page accusation with an annex of about 300 pages, and he rejected defending himself “in less than 12 hours.”
Le Devoir said Peña was scheduled to appear at his impeachment trial and that the Ueno crisis had led the Central Bank of Paraguay to place Ueno Bank under tutelage, freezing the deposits of millions of savers. Le Devoir quoted Peña saying on X, “I requested a 72-hour delay to exercise my defense,” as he argued the notification and timing did not allow a regular procedure.
What is at stake next
The impeachment process was framed around allegations that Peña had conflicts of interest and that authorities failed to act on warnings about Ueno Bank’s financial position, after Peña had requested a 72-hour extension and the Senate moved forward with the trial. Al Jazeera said Paraguay’s attorney general ordered three criminal investigations into the bank’s collapse, including regulatory oversight and the placement of public funds in the institution, and it said arrest warrants had been issued for eight Ueno executives who later turned themselves in. The opposition accused Peña of conflicts of interest, of allowing improper use of pension funds, and of covering up irregularities, while it described the central bank’s dissolution procedure for Ueno Bank after its solvency index fell below half of the minimum required.
Le Temps said the outcome would open a path for Vice President Pedro Alliana, 52, from the same conservative Colorado party to assume the remainder of the term until 2028 if Peña is impeached at the end of his trial before the Senate. Al Jazeera warned that if Peña is convicted in an impeachment trial, he would lose the lifetime Senate seat and associated legal protections ordinarily granted to former Paraguayan presidents.