Paraguay Senate votes to remove President Santiago Peña from office following Ueno bank collapse
- On Friday, Paraguay's Senate unanimously voted to remove President Santiago Peña for misconduct over Ueno Bank's collapse. Vice President Pedro Alliana was immediately sworn in to lead the country.
- Regulators seized Ueno Bank on Tuesday, freezing nearly 3 million customer accounts and triggering nationwide protests. Lawmakers accused Peña of steering $355 million in state pension funds to the lender while regulators overlooked risky insider lending.
- Prosecutors charged 27 people, including Ueno's controlling shareholder Miguel Vázquez, with breach of trust and placed Peña under house arrest on Friday. Former central bank chief Carlos Carvallo also faced arrest orders.
- President Alliana inherited a government under pressure to return depositors' money and punish those responsible. Paraguay's largest teachers' union, representing more than 40,000 members, plans an indefinite national strike on Monday to demand pension fund protection.
- Peña lost his political base after mentor Horacio Cartes publicly called for his ouster, marking a stunning reversal of fortunes. Unlike other former presidents, Peña will not receive a lifetime Senate seat or parliamentary immunity, leaving him vulnerable to prosecution.
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204 Articles
Suddenly it happened very quickly: Due to the banking crisis in Paraguay, the Senate removed the former President Peña from office - shortly afterwards, the prosecutor's office ordered house arrest for him. A successor is already sworn in.
Paraguay's Senate has voted to impeach President Santiago Peña for mismanagement, a decision that could lead to him facing criminal charges over the country's banking crisis.
The Paraguayan Senate voted unanimously to remove President Santiago Peña from office as part of the impeachment procedure, reports La Nación.
(Mexico City = Yonhap News) Correspondent Song Gwang-ho = Paraguayan President Santiago Peña, who announced his resignation over allegations of involvement in bank corruption, was eventually removed from office through impeachment by the National Assembly.
Santiago Peña, who had been the president of the country since 2023, was dismissed on Friday at the end of his trial in the Senate for his responsibility for the banking scandal that affected the assets of nearly 3 million savers.
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