Friday’s vote in Asunción left little ambiguity: Paraguay’s Senate emptied the presidential palace over the Ueno Bank disaster. All 44 members who showed up backed removal; one seat in the 45-member chamber stayed vacant. Almost immediately afterward Santiago Peña was confined at home, and Pedro Alliana took the oath to govern through 2028.
Ueno’s failure froze the savings of about three million people—roughly half the population and around three in five adults. Regulators had already taken control of the digital lender. Lawmakers argued that Peña’s former stake in the parent company, which he says ended in 2025, warped oversight and siphoned pension money. He rejects the entire case.
Rather than let him walk away quietly, senators refused the resignation he floated on Thursday. Only impeachment, they calculated, cancels the legal shield and permanent Senate perch that usually cushion ex-presidents. Chamber leader Basilio Núñez described the finding as neglect of duty. A Saturday interrogation is lined up on accusations ranging from broken fiduciary duty to political favoritism and diverted cash.
Alliana’s opening promise was to make depositors whole. The guarantee fund has started payouts—initial checks near 18,700 dollars in some reports, with cover rising toward about 37,000. Peña released a clip insisting he never meant to break the public’s faith.
Street anger had already spilled through the capital earlier in the week; officers answered with gas canisters and water trucks. Since the Stroessner era ended in 1989, only one other head of state has fallen this way—making Friday’s tally historic as well as punitive.
