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Paraguay Impeaches Peña, Alliana Sworn In as PresidentWorld
Paraguay’s Senate has removed President Santiago Peña from office over the collapse of Ueno Bank, and Vice President Pedro Alliana has been sworn in as the country’s new president, pledging to stand by nearly three million affected depositors.
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Paraguay’s Senate has voted to remove President Santiago Peña from office, ending his presidency less than a week after a banking crisis plunged the country into political turmoil. Vice President Pedro Alliana was sworn in as the country’s new president within the hour.
All 44 senators present voted on Friday, 6 November, to remove Peña, with one senator absent from the 45-member chamber. Senate President Basilio Núñez declared Peña guilty of poor performance of his duties, the ground for removal under Paraguay’s constitution. The vote followed a 78–0 vote in the Chamber of Deputies to impeach him, and a fast-tracked one-day trial in the Senate.
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Peña, 44, had taken office in August 2023 as one of the youngest presidents in Paraguay’s history. He had submitted his resignation on Thursday, 5 November, but lawmakers pressed ahead with the impeachment, a step that also removed his presidential immunity.
Bank collapse behind the crisis
The political crisis was triggered by the collapse of Ueno Bank, a digital lender with about three million customers. Paraguay’s central bank took control of the bank before dawn on Tuesday, 3 November, after finding that it had fallen far below the minimum solvency level it is required to hold. The failure left nearly half of the country’s population unable to access their savings, and sparked street protests in the capital, Asunción, earlier in the week.
Lawmakers blamed Peña for the bank’s collapse, and he lost the support of senior figures in the governing conservative Colorado Party as the crisis deepened. Prosecutors placed the former president under house arrest at his residence in Asunción minutes after he was removed from office.
On Saturday, 7 November, prosecutors formally charged Peña with breach of trust, as an instigator, and administration for personal benefit, both linked to the Ueno Bank collapse. Possible charges of influence peddling and misappropriation of funds were also mentioned by prosecutors. These are charges, not findings: Peña has not been convicted of any offence, and he has rejected the accusations. At least 27 people are facing criminal charges in connection with the scandal, including the bank’s major shareholder, Miguel Vázquez.
Alliana takes over until 2028
Alliana, 52, becomes Paraguay’s 53rd president and will serve out the remainder of Peña’s term, which runs until 15 August 2028. A longtime Colorado Party leader, he had hoped to run for president in 2028 and has now reached the office two years early.
At his inauguration on Friday, Alliana emphasised that his term is short and said he would demand results from all ministers and public officials. He pledged that he would not turn his back on the nearly three million depositors, pensioners among them, who were affected by the bank’s takeover. Opposition lawmakers had also submitted a motion to impeach Alliana over the crisis, but it failed to secure congressional approval.
Under Paraguay’s constitution, the vice president automatically assumes the presidency when the office falls vacant, completing the remainder of the five-year term without a fresh nationwide election. The Colorado Party has governed Paraguay for most of the last eight decades.
His immediate test is restoring access to frozen deposits and calming a financial system shaken by the failure of one of its largest lenders.
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