Paraguay’s Peña loses top aides as impeachment trial resumes over failed bank

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Top aides to Paraguayan President Santiago Peña have resigned as the Senate resumed an impeachment trial Friday that could remove him from office, deepening a political crisis triggered by the collapse of a bank tied to his government.

Senators rejected Peña’s request for 72 more hours to respond to accusations stemming from the failure of Ueno Bank, a digital lender that counted nearly half of Paraguay’s population as customers. Its collapse this week froze the savings of millions of Paraguayans and upended a country long seen by investors as one of South America’s most stable.

Interior Minister Enrique Riera resigned late Thursday, followed Friday by Peña’s chief of staff, Javier Giménez, and his legal adviser, Roberto Moreno, who quit just as the president prepared to defend himself before the Senate.

Peña said he had received the summons only hours before the session, along with about 300 pages of accusations and evidence, leaving him no time to hire a lawyer or review the case.

“That is not due process,” he wrote on X.

Within a mere three days, the implosion of Ueno has plunged Paraguay into its deepest political crisis in more than a decade. Regulators seized the bank before dawn Tuesday. By Thursday afternoon, Peña had offered to resign as his own party turned on him.

“It was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me,” he said in a video address as Paraguayans took to the streets of Asunción, the capital, and other cities nationwide, clashing with police and demanding that Peña be held accountable.

Former President Horacio Cartes, Peña’s mentor and the patriarch of the long-ruling conservative Colorado Party, publicly backed his ouster. The lower house voted 78-0 to impeach Peña and send the case to the Senate. It was a stunning reversal for the former International Monetary Fund economist, whose presidency had rested on the backing of his party’s most powerful figures.

Under Paraguay’s Constitution, a president who resigns — rather than being removed through impeachment — becomes a senator for life, with parliamentary immunity that could shield him from prosecution. That has turned Peña’s exit into a political battle.

The president’s remaining allies want Congress to approve his resignation, while opponents want the Senate to convict and oust him. When his allies saw Thursday that they lacked the votes, they walked out, leaving too few lawmakers to proceed and Peña in office.

Conviction requires 30 votes in the 45-member Senate. Either way, Vice President Pedro Alliana, who survived his own impeachment attempt Thursday, would serve out the term through August 2028.

The impeachment charges center on Peña’s close ties to Ueno, which grew from a little-known lender into one of Paraguay’s largest banks in just a few years, taking in more than $800 million in public funds.

Lawmakers cite Peña’s stake in Ueno’s holding company, which he sold only last year, and his appointment of a former Ueno executive to run the central bank that regulated it. They also accuse him of letting public pension deposits at the bank exceed legal limits.

Prosecutors on Thursday opened three criminal investigations into the bank’s collapse, including complaints against Peña, Vice President Alliana and current and former officials at the central bank and the state pension fund.

Former Ueno CEO Miguel Vázquez has been charged with crimes including breach of trust and attempted fraud, and a judge has ordered six bank directors held in pretrial detention. Police and prosecutors raided company offices in Asunción and towed nine luxury vehicles from Vázquez’s home early Friday.

Ueno Bank’s nearly 3 million customers still cannot withdraw cash, make digital payments or use their bank cards. The central bank calls the collapse an isolated case and insists the broader financial system is safe.