Asunción, November 8. Paraguay’s Senate on November 6 removed President Santiago Peña after the collapse of the digital lender Ueno Bank.
Vice President Pedro Alliana was sworn in the same day and will lead the country until August 2028, international agencies reported.
The crisis began on November 3, when Paraguay’s central bank started resolution proceedings against Ueno Bank after finding its solvency ratio had fallen below half the required minimum; nearly three million customers lost access to their accounts, a report says. The same day, at Peña’s request, central bank chief Carlos Carvallo resigned; he had earlier headed the bank’s predecessor, Financiera Ueno. A court later detained Carvallo for 15 days in the bank-collapse case, the Paraguayan newspaper ABC Color reported.
Then, on November 4, the opposition and some lawmakers of the ruling Colorado Party filed a motion in the lower house to impeach Peña and Alliana. The next day Peña announced his resignation in a video address, but Congress did not accept it. The lower house voted unanimously, 78 to nil, to impeach, the AP agency reported; the house rejected the motion to impeach Alliana, 48 votes to 30, an Argentine newspaper wrote. The next day the Senate removed Peña, with all 44 senators present voting in favour, a report says.
The president denies wrongdoing, a financial portal wrote. Until April 2025 Peña was a shareholder in Ueno Holding, and in 2023 he himself appointed Carvallo head of the central bank that supervised the lender, MercoPress recalls. Prosecutors charged 27 employees and associates of the bank with breach of trust and attempted fraud. Alliana is also under investigation in connection with the bank, Outlook India reported.
What it means: In four days a banking crisis turned into a change of head of state: less than a week passed between the freezing of three million customers’ accounts and the Senate’s decision. The heaviest question is the bank’s link to the authorities: state money flowed into Ueno under Peña, and the person who supervised the bank was appointed by Peña himself.
What we know now: Pedro Alliana is now president, with a term ending in August 2028. Carvallo is detained for 15 days, and 27 employees and associates of the bank have been charged. When customers will regain access to deposits is not stated in the agency reports.
Background: Ueno Bank is a digital bank, the successor of Financiera Ueno; under Peña state money was directed into it, as AP wrote. The term of the presidential mandate that Alliana will now complete ends on August 15, 2028, MercoPress recalls.
