Paraguay removes its president as a failed bank freezes millions of savings

Senate removed Santiago Peña 44–0 after Ueno Bank's seizure left an estimated three million depositors without access to savings and pensions.

Paraguay's Senate impeached President Santiago Peña on Friday, 6 November 2026, and he was placed under house arrest. The vote was 44 of 45 in favour, with one lawmaker absent, and members of his own party voted for removal. It came days after the central bank seized Ueno Bank. Peña held shares in the company that owned the bank until last year. He denies wrongdoing, and his lawyer, Ricardo Preda, calls the allegations reckless, irresponsible and opportunistic.

The charges allege conflicts of interest, manipulation of regulatory oversight, diversion of pension funds and a cover-up involving the central bank. Peña had offered to resign on Thursday. Senators impeached him instead, which strips him of the immunity normally given to former presidents. A prosecutor says he is due for questioning Saturday over alleged breach of trust, influence peddling and misappropriation of funds. Analysts, not prosecutors, say he is likely to be prosecuted over the collapse.

The human cost is the part that touches basic security. More than half the population lost access to their accounts, and an estimated three million depositors still cannot reach savings and pensions. That figure is an estimate. Money frozen in a failed bank cannot buy food, rent or medicine, and the queues at Ueno branches and the protests, some met with tear gas and water cannons, show how quickly that turns into a wider loss of trust in institutions.

Watch what follows. Vice president Pedro Alliana, sworn in as interim president until 2028, has promised depositors will be fully compensated. No mechanism or cost has been given, so that remains a promise. The questions are how quickly accounts reopen, who pays, and whether the prosecutions move beyond the president.

Source: BBC World