In brief
Pedro Alliana took the oath of office on Friday after a swift Senate impeachment of Santiago Peña over a banking scandal that left millions of Paraguayans without access to their accounts. Peña was arrested on suspicion of breach of trust, and the crisis exposed regulatory failures and possible conflicts of interest tied to the former president and the troubled Ueno Bank.
Pedro Alliana, 52, was sworn in as Paraguay’s 53rd president on Friday, following the arrest of former President Santiago Peña amid a banking scandal that saw the shuttering of Ueno Bank and a rapid impeachment by the Senate.
Alliana, a Conservative party politician, took the oath of office at the National Congress in Asunción in a ceremony that was televised for the first time under the new administration.
Earlier in the day, 44 of Paraguay’s 45 senators voted to remove Peña from office in a motion that carried a 97 percent margin. One senator abstained. Senators argued that the former president’s ties to Ueno Bank, Paraguay’s fifth-largest lender, raised questions about his oversight and public trust.
According to Al Jazeera, prosecutors have now ordered Peña to be placed under house arrest on suspicion of breach of trust and other crimes. A warrant was issued for former central‑bank chief Carlos Carvallo, who resigned earlier this week after being accused of failing to supervise the bank’s growth.
For context, the central bank’s Emergency Council seized Ueno on Tuesday after discovering the lender fell below the legal solvency threshold. That move seized the bank’s remaining assets and transferred them to other institutions as a safeguard, but it also froze millions of customers’ accounts and halted pension payments.
Al Jazeera notes that Ueno had nearly 3 million members at its peak, roughly two‑thirds of Paraguay’s adults, and was the country’s fifth‑largest bank by deposits, worth about $800 million in public funds. Peña had been listed as a shareholder of the bank’s parent company, though he claimed to have sold his shares in early 2025.
In a now‑deleted tweet that sparked online debate, Peña wrote:
I take my leave with gratitude, while fully acknowledging the anguish of those who are currently awaiting answers,
Political analysts say the swift transition reflects growing pains in Paraguay’s democratic institutions and may prompt a review of banking regulations and the role of political elites in private finance.
