Paraguay’s president resigns after collapse of bank holding public funds
Santiago Peña resigned as president of Paraguay on Thursday, a day after opposition deputies moved to impeach him over the collapse of Ueno Bank, which the central bank seized on Tuesday after its capital fell below half the legal minimum. The bank claimed more than 60% of the country’s adults as customers and held around $800m in public deposits, including pensions. “It was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me,” he said.
Mr Peña, a 47-year-old former IMF economist, announced his resignation in a video on X, saying he acted “with the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions in mind”, and apologising “to the people if at any point I failed”. He had been a shareholder until last year in the company that owned the bank, and the AP reports that its executives have been detained and that his party patron Horacio Cartes withdrew his support. The lower house had voted to pursue an impeachment trial, which needs two-thirds majorities in both chambers; Al Jazeera reports that congress was also seeking to impeach the vice-president, Pedro Alliana, who is nonetheless set to take office, and that protesters outside urged deputies not to accept the resignation. “Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” one told the AP. Al Jazeera puts the bank’s customers at roughly three million in a country of 6.5 million and the public funds at close to $850m; the AP says about $800m, a quarter of deposits.