Asuncion (Paraguay) (AFP) – Banks open to recover money, a little peace of mind: Paraguayans began to breathe this weekend, as payments were put in place for savers cheated by the banking scandal which brought down President Peña. But the stress and anger are still raw.

Published on: 08/11/2026 - 02:18

Isabel Figueredo leaves a Continental agency reassured: she will be able to have her money. Like just under 3 million other savers at Ueno, a young online bank placed under supervision on Tuesday, she no longer had access to her deposits, which were suddenly frozen.

“I breathed a sigh of relief when I came to the bank and was able to make sure my money was safe,” she told AFP as she left the establishment to which funds were credited.

According to the Central Bank (BCP), 1.196 million savers, out of Ueno's 2.94 million customers - or almost half of the country's population - had received advances as of Saturday morning. For a total amount of around 1 billion guaranis ($160,000), the brand new President Pedro Alliana estimated on his X account.

In the capital Asuncion and several provincial towns, half a dozen banks in the country opened their branches on Saturday and Sunday, so that Ueno's victims could recover their funds.

Although the money is automatically credited to accounts held in other banks or to be opened for this purpose, many savers prefer to come in person.

They can go to the ATMs but "some prefer to insure themselves by going to the counters", explains César Vazquez, financial director of Zeta Banco, to AFP.

Payments by the BCP Guarantee Fund relate first to small accounts, up to 10 million guaranis (1,600 dollars), then beyond that, gradually, up to a ceiling of "40 minimum salaries", or 121 million guaranis (nearly 20,000 dollars), according to the express law promulgated on Wednesday, one of the very last of Santiago Peña before his dismissal two days later.

But between the outbreak of the banking crisis on Tuesday and the payments this weekend, the last few days have been an abyss of anxiety.

“On Wednesday night, I couldn't sleep. I stayed up until 3 a.m., entering the Central Bank application, which was totally saturated,” says Antonio Ruiz Sanchez, an official at the electricity agency and father of two children.

“Spit in his face”

“When I woke up on Thursday morning, my savings were already deposited” into his account in a traditional bank, Itau. “But I was anxious, I can’t deny it. It had never happened to me.”

The sudden debacle of Ueno Bank took its customers by surprise and paralyzed businesses, markets and artisans.

Maria Amarilla, an 18-year-old student, says that her mother, a self-employed caterer, "had prepared a thousand petit fours on Sunday for an event. Monday morning, the person who was supposed to pay her told her that her money had disappeared, that her account showed 'balance not available', and that was it."

“It was very hard for us, it meant a lot of money and my mother needs it.”

For Giovanni Catolino, who had not yet recovered his funds when AFP spoke to him on Friday evening, "these are 16 years of work lost".

“My wife and I opened a travel agency in June, with compensation from my previous company. It took us time, it cost us money. I threw myself into it, obviously.” And “15,000 or 16,000 dollars, if not more”, went into limbo, he says.

“I want to spit in that idiot’s face,” he said, trembling, very moved, when talking about Santiago Peña.

The ex-president was indicted for breach of trust and having favored and protected Ueno bank, of which he was a shareholder.

For security reasons, he will be detained at a presidential guard site. Initially under house arrest, he had to be urgently transferred there in the face of hostile demonstrators in front of his home, whom the police had to disperse by firing rubber bullets.

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© 2026 AFP

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