Paraguay’s Senate on Friday removed President Santiago Peña from office in a unanimous vote, then swore in Vice President Pedro Alliana as the country’s new head of state. Hours later, prosecutors placed Peña under house arrest as investigators examined the collapse of digital lender Ueno Bank — a crisis that locked millions of customers out of their accounts.
The sequence marks one of the sharpest political and financial shocks in Paraguay since democracy returned in 1989. It is also the second presidential impeachment removal in that era, after Fernando Lugo was ousted in 2012.
Senate removes Peña for misconduct in office
According to Al Jazeera and other outlets covering the Friday session, all 44 senators present voted to remove Peña for misconduct in office. One seat in the 45-member chamber was vacant for the vote. The chamber proceeded with impeachment after Peña offered his resignation on Thursday, choosing removal rather than accepting that resignation.
AP News reported that the crisis escalated after Paraguay’s Central Bank intervened earlier in the week at Ueno Bank, citing insolvency. The bank held pensions and public funds reported in the range of about $800 million to $850 million, and served a huge share of the country’s adult population.
Pedro Alliana sworn in as 53rd president
Shortly after the Senate vote, Pedro Alliana, 52, was sworn in before Congress as Paraguay’s 53rd president. He will complete the remaining term through August 2028. The handover was designed to keep the constitutional line of succession intact while investigations into the banking failure continue.
Alliana had served as vice president under Peña. International coverage described the transition as rapid but orderly once the Senate completed the removal vote.
House arrest after Ueno Bank collapse
Prosecutors placed Peña under house arrest on suspicion of breach of trust — known in Spanish as lesión de confianza — and ordered him to appear Saturday morning at the economic crimes unit. The Straits Times reported that prosecutors said possible charges were still being determined and that influence peddling had been mentioned among issues under review.
Peña had been a shareholder until last year in the company that owned Ueno Bank. He has denied impropriety. An arrest warrant was also reported for former central bank head Carlos Carvallo, who resigned earlier this week.
Why Ueno Bank’s failure hit so hard
Ueno is a digital lender that grew quickly into a mass-market financial product. Coverage cited roughly three million customers — about half of Paraguay’s population of more than six million, and around 60% of adults — who were locked out of savings and cards after the Central Bank intervention.
Because the bank held pensions and public funds, the insolvency quickly moved from a private banking problem into a national political crisis. Friday’s impeachment vote and house-arrest order followed days of mounting pressure after Peña’s Thursday resignation offer failed to halt congressional proceedings.
What’s next / Why it matters
Alliana now faces twin tasks: stabilizing the financial system for Ueno’s depositors and restoring confidence in public institutions. Prosecutors’ Saturday summons of Peña will test how quickly economic-crime investigators can define charges, if any, and whether additional officials become subjects of the inquiry.
For the region, the episode is a reminder that concentrated digital banking — especially when mixed with public funds and political ownership ties — can become a governance stress test overnight. For Paraguayans locked out of accounts, the political drama is secondary to a more immediate question: when, and how, their money becomes accessible again.
Sources
- AP News — Paraguay bank failure, impeachment and crisis
- Al Jazeera — Peña under arrest; Alliana sworn in
- BBC Mundo — coverage of Peña’s removal and succession
- The Straits Times — Senate impeachment proceedings
- The Guardian — earlier context on Peña’s resignation offer (Nov. 5)