{"id":229905,"date":"2026-11-06T02:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-11-06T02:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/paraguays-president-quits-after-millions-of-peoples-savings-frozen-in-bank-crisis-the-guardian\/"},"modified":"2026-11-06T02:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-11-06T02:26:12","slug":"paraguays-president-quits-after-millions-of-peoples-savings-frozen-in-bank-crisis-the-guardian","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/paraguays-president-quits-after-millions-of-peoples-savings-frozen-in-bank-crisis-the-guardian\/","title":{"rendered":"Paraguay\u2019s president quits after millions of people\u2019s savings frozen in bank crisis – The Guardian"},"content":{"rendered":"

Santiago Pe\u00f1a\u2019s rightwing administration had authorised Ueno Bank to drastically expand operations before collapse
Paraguay\u2019s rightwing president, Santiago Pe\u00f1a, resigned on Thursday after a political and financial crisis collapsed the South American country\u2019s banking system in recent days.
At the centre of the crisis is Ueno Bank, which in just a few years under Pe\u00f1a went from an obscure digital bank to one of the country\u2019s largest lenders, claiming to have about 60% of Paraguay\u2019s adult population as customers.
Last Monday, the central bank ordered Ueno into resolution over insolvency, freezing the deposits of 3 million customers, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without access to money for food and basic daily expenses. Bank executives were arrested, and people took to the streets in massive protests.
In power since August 2023 and with a term running until 2028, the 47-year-old economist was already facing impeachment proceedings that had broad support.
\u201cDear compatriots, today I address you at one of the most difficult moments of my life. With my heart set on Paraguay and with the conviction that our republic must always come before any person or circumstance, I have decided to submit my resignation as president of the republic,\u201d said Pe\u00f1a in a video.
Ueno Bank began as a finance company in the 1970s and, in 2021, was bought by Grupo V\u00e1zquez, one of Paraguay\u2019s largest business and industrial conglomerates. At the end of 2023, it received authorisation from the central bank, already under Pe\u00f1a\u2019s administration, to operate as a digital bank.
The bank rapidly expanded its operations, attracting customers with generous cash-back offers on groceries and sponsoring Paraguay\u2019s national football team. On Wednesday, the players released a letter \u201cdemanding\u201d a \u201cforceful response\u201d from the government and the justice system.
The bank came to manage between $800m and $850m in deposits from state and pension entities, including retirement funds, prompting criticism over conflicts of interest because of Pe\u00f1a\u2019s previous shareholding ties to Ueno Holding.
Pe\u00f1a said that, as an economist, he had merely made an \u201cinvestment\u201d, but that he had already disposed of all his shares. When the local press pointed to possible improper favouritism in directing state and pension funds to the bank, he called it a \u201cfalse media campaign\u201d aimed at weakening his government.
On Wednesday, opposition lawmakers and even members of Pe\u00f1a\u2019s Colorado party filed an impeachment motion holding the president responsible for the collapse. He had been a shareholder in the group that ran the bank until early last year and, in recent months, had reportedly been ignoring warnings from the central bank and the media about its operations.
Political pressure intensified on Thursday morning when the ex-president Horacio Cartes, his former ally, posted a message endorsing the impeachment.
\u201cWe will not stand on the side of the theft of public, private and pensioners\u2019 funds. We must think of the people and of the values we uphold in the Colorado party. We support the impeachment of the president of the republic, Santiago Pe\u00f1a, in order to restore the institutional order of the republic,\u201d he wrote.
Other lawmakers followed suit and began debating impeachment when Pe\u00f1a released a video announcing his resignation.
\u201cI do so thinking of the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions,\u201d said the now former president.
\u201cI also want to apologise to the people if at any point I failed them \u2026 But today my priority is only one thing: the peace of mind of Paraguayans who trusted their savings to our financial system \u2026 My greatest wish is that the return of those funds is guaranteed,\u201d he added.
Since the scandal broke, Pe\u00f1a has insisted in interviews and statements that he committed no wrongdoing.
Opposition senator Rafael Filizzola called the case \u201cthe biggest fraud carried out from political power in the democratic era \u2026 This is a bank created from political power, to use public money for private businesses linked to political power, with the president of the republic at the head of it,\u201d he told 1020 AM radio.
Pe\u00f1a, a former finance minister who promised to rebuild a \u201cgreat Paraguay\u201d, was a key ally of the US president, Donald Trump, in the region \u2013 one of the few Latin American presidents to attend Trump\u2019s second inauguration. US officials, including the secretary of state, Marco Rubio, repeatedly praised him as a \u201cstrategic partner<\/a>\u201d, and Pe\u00f1a recently flew to Washington to discuss critical minerals and economic cooperation. Neither Rubio nor Trump has yet commented on Pe\u00f1a\u2019s resignation.
It is still unclear who will replace him or when, because his resignation must, in theory, be accepted by Congress \u2013 in which case the vice-president, Pedro Alliana, would take over. Alliana is also suspected<\/a> of involvement in the Ueno Bank scandal, which he has denied.
About an hour after Pe\u00f1a\u2019s announcement, the lower house unanimously approved the impeachment motion, which now goes to the senate. If approved, even after his resignation, he would lose his senate seat and, with it, parliamentary immunity, leaving him to face any criminal proceedings in the ordinary courts.<\/p>\n

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Santiago Pe\u00f1a\u2019s rightwing administration had authorised Ueno Bank to drastically expand operations before collapseParaguay\u2019s rightwing president, Santiago Pe\u00f1a, resigned on Thursday after a political and financial crisis collapsed the South American country\u2019s banking system in recent days.At the centre of the crisis is Ueno Bank, which in just a few years under Pe\u00f1a went from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229906,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-229905","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229905","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229905"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229905\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229906"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229905"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229905"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quixnet.net\/wpinstance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229905"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}