Asuncion (Paraguay) (AFP) – Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, on the verge of impeachment, asked Friday for a three-day delay to prepare his defense before the Senate, in the wake of a banking crisis which motivated a new demonstration Thursday evening in Asuncion.

Published on: 06/11/2026 - 16:42

I asked for a “deadline of 72 hours to exercise my defense,” Mr. Peña said on the social network X.

He deplored having only been notified at 10:15 p.m. (01:15 GMT) Thursday of a 15-page indictment with "around 300 pages of annexes", while his presentation before the Senate was scheduled for Friday at 10:00 a.m. (1:00 p.m. GMT).

“It’s not a due process before you show up,” he said.

A meeting was held Friday morning in the Senate, which must lead the impeachment procedure, to examine Mr. Peña's request, the president of this chamber, Basilio Nuñez, announced to journalists.

In the meantime, Mr. Peña published on

President since 2023, the conservative Santiago Peña, 47, was assigned by Parliament to an impeachment trial following the Ueno bank crisis.

Declared insolvent on Tuesday, it was placed under supervision by the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP), freezing the assets of millions of savers.

Ueno claimed 2.94 million customers, almost half the country's population. And Mr. Peña, an economist by training, until last year had shares in a holding company holding Ueno, a bank with ultra-rapid growth in recent years. Hence an accusation of conflict of interest founding the request for dismissal.

The crisis brought thousands of demonstrators into the streets again on Thursday evening in Asuncion.

“My family found itself without money, we have no cash. Santi (Peña) is a delinquent, he must go to prison!” Andres Maldonado, a 21-year-old student, told AFP in the crowd.

“Stealing is a crime only for the poor”, “It’s not that there is a lack of money, it’s that there are too many thieves”, proclaimed signs, amid slogans “Santi, scum, we want your head!”.

Institutional floating

Paraguay finds itself, this weekend, in a period of uncertainty, an unprecedented constitutional gray zone for this country of 6.5 million inhabitants, a long-time close ally of the United States in Latin America.

If Santiago Peña presented his resignation on Thursday, he technically remains at the head of state, since Parliament, due to lack of quorum on Thursday, was unable to vote to accept or refuse it. An essential step.

An accepted resignation would have conferred on Mr. Peña parliamentary immunity because, as ex-president, he acquired the status of senator for life, constitutional experts and deputies explained to AFP.

However, many parliamentarians wanted to see the president go through a formal impeachment procedure. And the approximately 5,000 demonstrators around Parliament on Thursday evening resolutely said they wanted him "in prison", noted AFP.

- Also targeted by the prosecution -

On Thursday, Paraguay's public prosecutor's office announced the opening of an investigation targeting Mr. Peña for "facts relating to the supervision and resolution of Ueno Bank" and the possible "investment of public funds in said entity".

In addition to the resignation of the BCP president, the crisis has seen eight Ueno leaders placed in pre-trial detention, and proceedings initiated against around twenty other people since Tuesday.

Resignation or impeachment trial? In Parliament, Mr. Peña's case was the subject of fierce debate on Thursday.

If parliamentarians accepted his resignation, the head of state retained "his immunity by acquiring the status of senator for life", constitutional expert Alcibiades Gonzalez Delvalle told AFP. And he thus avoided an impeachment trial, which many deputies demanded.

Concerning the victims of Ueno, on Wednesday, Parliament adopted an express law providing for first payments this week to injured savers, advances which could reach up to the equivalent of "40 minimum monthly salaries" in the long term.

If Santiago Peña is dismissed at the end of his trial before the Senate, the way will be open for Vice-President Pedro Alliana, 52, from the same conservative Colorado party, hegemonic in Paraguay, to assume the end of the mandate until 2028.

Mr. Alliana was also the subject of a request for dismissal following the Ueno scandal, but in his case the deputies voted to refuse this procedure.

© 2026 AFP

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