44 senators voted unanimously in favor of the president's dismissal due to his ties to Ueno Bank, whose closure has caused an unprecedented political crisis in the country. In rapid succession, the Prosecutor's Office ordered the arrest of Peña, the National Police carried out the measure, notifying him of his house arrest, the former president was summoned to give statements, pending an indictment, and President Pedro Alliana was sworn in in his place.

First modification: 07/11/2026 - 04:07

Santiago Peña had little time to react on November 6. In a few hours, he went from asking for the acceptance of his resignation (which would have retained parliamentary immunity, avoiding being prosecuted) to being dismissed by the Senate for his links with Ueno Bank, the financial entity whose closure has left the savings of almost three million Paraguayans in limbo.

In just a few hours, Peña became the second president dismissed in the brief history of Paraguayan democracy (after the leftist Fernando Lugo in 2012), he was the subject of an arrest warrant by the Prosecutor's Office - which the National Police executed almost immediately, imposing him on house arrest - and is now summoned to testify, awaiting the formulation of charges.

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Peña ended up still acting president on November 5, after the lack of a quorum in the Chamber of Deputies prevented consideration of his resignation, which he had presented shortly before.

Read alsoSantiago Peña remains provisionally at the head of the Presidency; His fate is in the hands of the Senate

It was only a temporary relief: the Senate constituted itself as a court to decide on a political trial against him, while a group of deputies led by Rocío Vallejo acted as prosecutors, in a debate that began on the morning of November 6.

Peña did not appear at the session and instead appointed attorney Ricardo Preda to take on his defense before the legislature, which alleged that Peña had conflicts of interest, manipulated regulatory oversight, diverted pension funds, and participated in an institutional cover-up involving the Central Bank.

The legal representative described the indictment against Peña as a “dismal failure”, once again requested that the resignation be accepted and requested an extension of 72 hours to prepare the defense, given the volume of the libel of some 300 pages.

Faced with the Senate's refusal, Preda threatened to go before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to denounce that the president was being subjected to an impeachment procedure that did not offer guarantees of due process and legitimate defense.

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However, the Senate unanimously approved the evidence presented against Peña within the framework of the impeachment trial, which was held in absentia.

Thus, the Upper House proceeded to the voting stage to define his dismissal for "poor performance of duties", which was also endorsed without dissent by the 44 senators present in the session, while a crowd celebrated outside the legislative headquarters every time the parliamentarians notified their favorable vote.

Immediately, the now former president published in

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In this way, Peña followed the path of Fernando Lugo, a former socialist Catholic bishop who briefly broke the 60-year dominance of the Colorado Party, until his ouster from power in 2012, following a controversial impeachment that many Latin American and some European governments called a breakdown of the democratic order.

Pedro Alliana, from survival to power

Immediately after Peña's dismissal, Senate President Basilio Núñez preceded the swearing-in of Vice President Pedro Alliana, whom Congress had previously given up impeachment.

Under Paraguayan law, Alliana is now mandated to complete Peña's term, which expires in 2028, and weather the political crisis resulting from the closure of Ueno Bank.

In his first words after the inauguration, Alliana, a member of the Colorado Party who managed to save himself from being swept up in the debacle, promised to compensate those affected by the "financial disaster."

It is not the first time he has narrowly escaped a difficult situation. In 2019, he had to step away from his seat in the Chamber of Deputies for 90 days due to aggressive leukemia.

The recovery reinforced his Catholic faith and, at the same time, defined his decisive approach to the former president and leader of the Colorado Party Horacio Cartes, who paid for his treatment at the Syrian-Lebanese Hospital in Sao Paulo.

In this way, 'Mangui', as his friends call him, confirmed himself as a true “colorado”, unlike the now dismissed Peña, who “assimilated” to the ranks of the dominant movement in Paraguay thanks to his charisma, coming from the ranks of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA).

Arrested, summoned and almost certainly charged

By being targeted for dismissal, instead of accepting his resignation, Peña was exposed to being prosecuted, and that was the next move that occurred on the most tortuous Friday of his political life.

Once stripped of his jurisdiction, the Prosecutor's Office ordered his arrest for the crime of breach of trust. The request was issued by the prosecutors specialized in Economic Crimes and Anti-Corruption Elena Fiore, Christian Benítez and Silvia González Véster, who acted together with the agent of the Specialized Unit in Computer Crimes and Money Laundering Ruth Karina Benítez.

Almost immediately, the National Police notified that the arrest had been carried out, after a visit to his residence.

"He is now officially detained, he has just been notified and he was informed that he will officially be arrested at his home," an officer who went to Peña's house to impose the measure on him told reporters.

Now, the dismissed president has been summoned to give statements this November 7, after which charges will be filed against him, which will almost certainly be breach of trust, influence peddling and administration for personal gain.

The Prosecutor's Office also requested the capture of Carlos Carvallo, who was director of Ueno Bank until 2023, when Peña appointed him to head the Central Bank. It was unclear whether the arrest had been carried out.

But the greatest scrutiny against the former president occurs in the streets of Paraguay, where protesters yesterday chanted “Santi Peña a Tacumbú”, in reference to the largest penitentiary center in the country.

"This was a huge betrayal of trust," Yinal López, a worker at the state electricity company, whose pension fund kept its deposits in Ueno Bank, complained to the AP agency. "The president made fun of the people. He used their money, the people's money, to do what he wanted."

With AP, EFE, Reuters and local media

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