Paraguay's Senate removed President Santiago Peña from office Friday, a dramatic downfall that paves the way for him to face potential criminal charges over his alleged role in the collapse of a major bank.
All 44 senators present voted in favor of Peña's ouster, a day after the lower house of Congress unanimously backed his impeachment. Peña was later placed under house arrest.
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Peña, a key ally of US President Donald Trump, had offered to resign amid intensifying pressure over his ties to Ueno Bank SA, a commercial bank that shut down earlier this week. The public prosecutor's office said Thursday that it opened a criminal investigation into Peña, who owned a stake in the bank's parent company, Grupo Vázquez, before divesting last year.
By voting to remove Peña instead of accepting his resignation, lawmakers denied him a lifetime non-voting Senate seat that the constitution grants former presidents — a status that would have afforded him broad immunity from prosecution.
Vice President Pedro Alliana was sworn in as the nation's new leader on Friday. Alliana, who survived an impeachment vote Thursday, will serve out the rest of Peña's term, which ends in August 2028.
The Ueno Bank saga erupted into Paraguay's biggest political crisis since Congress removed former President Fernando Lugo in 2012 following a deadly confrontation between police and landless peasants.
Regulators seized Ueno Bank early Tuesday, freezing the savings of millions of Paraguayans, including pensioners. That sparked widespread protests in a country where roughly 1 in 3 people held deposits at the lender, even as the central bank begins to reimburse savers from the deposit insurance fund.
Government deposits in the lender surged from zero when Peña took office in 2023 to more than $800 million earlier this year. Peña also handpicked a former Ueno executive to lead the nation's central bank, prompting public scrutiny over cozy ties and lax oversight as the lender's surging growth went unchecked.
The central bank chief, Carlos Carvallo, resigned this week. Miguel Vázquez, who owned Ueno Bank, was arrested this week.
Peña's Downfall
Peña's removal will likely end a political career marked by shifting party allegiances and a meteoric rise fueled by his alliance with former President Horacio Cartes, the chairman of the ruling Colorado Party and one of Paraguay's wealthiest businessmen.
Peña joined the party while serving as finance minister under Cartes, who governed from 2013 to 2018. After losing the party's presidential primary in 2017, he secured its nomination five years later and won election in 2023.
The charismatic Peña made scores of trips abroad to meet foreign leaders and court investors. The Trump administration forged close ties with his business-friendly government, and the US leader praised him as a “young, handsome guy” at a February summit in Washington.
In a statement ahead of the vote, the US Embassy in Paraguay expressed solidarity with the country's people and called on authorities to maintain peace and respect for democratic institutions. It didn't mention Peña by name.
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Critics often alleged that Peña was a puppet of Cartes. But he broke with the former president in recent months, further splintering the Colorado Party.
Cartes publicly called for his ouster Thursday, setting in motion a swift impeachment process that led to Peña's downfall.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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