Paraguay’s Peña impeached 44–0 and placed under house arrest
Paraguay’s Senate voted 44 to nil on Friday to remove Santiago Peña from office over the collapse of Ueno bank, and prosecutors arrested him at his home minutes later on suspicion of illicit enrichment, money laundering and influence peddling. Pedro Alliana, the vice-president, was sworn in to serve until 2028 and promised depositors would be “fully compensated”. Around three million people — about 60% of adults — remain unable to reach savings and pensions frozen in the bank.
Mr Peña, a 47-year-old economist, resigned on Thursday but senators impeached him anyway, finding he had tolerated conflicts of interest, manipulated regulators, diverted pension funds and joined a cover-up involving the central bank, whose governor — a former Ueno chief executive — is also named in the arrest warrant. The lower house had voted 78–0; the Senate refused him 72 more hours by 39 votes to three. Ueno was the country’s fifth-largest bank by deposits and held some $800m of public money, with estimates of state and pension exposure running to $860m; at least 27 people face charges, six directors are in pre-trial detention and nine luxury cars were towed from the lead shareholder’s home. Mr Peña, who held about $1m of the bank’s shares until April 2025, told supporters: “It was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me”; his lawyer called the case “irresponsible and opportunistic”. He is to be questioned on Saturday. Horacio Cartes, the former president who leads the ruling Colorado party, backed removal “to restore the republic’s institutions”. One estimate puts the fall in retail sales as high as 80%. Watch whether the compensation promise survives contact with the budget.