Asuncion (Paraguay) (AFP) – After 29 years as a volunteer firefighter, Oscar Acuña faces a very strange emergency for which he had never been trained: the funds of all the fire stations in Paraguay have remained blocked in the coffers of Ueno Bank, the bank whose collapse plunged the country into an unprecedented crisis and overthrew President Santiago Peña.

Published on: 09/11/2026 - 17:34 Modified on: 09/11/2026 - 17:49

Paraguay's volunteer firefighters had about 2 billion guaranis (some $320,000) deposited with Ueno when the Central Bank ordered it to close on November 3 due to serious solvency problems.

“In the same way that many depositors of our institution have been defrauded, we ourselves, as an institution, have been defrauded and today we are suffering the consequences,” confides to AFP, with misty eyes, officer Acuña, commander of the Sixth Volunteer Fire Company of Mariano Roque Alonso, about fifteen kilometers from the capital Asunción.

There, due to lack of money, firefighters now have to choose which emergencies to deal with and pray that there will not be too many accidents or fires. Nearly 70% of their funds came from a national collection organized in October.

The accounts immobilized at Ueno compromise the activity of 140 barracks of the institution, which brings together some 6,500 volunteers.

“Once a year, we go out into the streets to ask for the collaboration of citizens in order to be able to finance our operations. We deposited all our collection in this bank because we trusted it,” laments Commander Acuña, 45 years old.

- Choose who to rescue

It’s Sunday, between the hanging uniforms and the still unsorted boxes of donations, the barracks are unusually quiet. Usually, families come to take photos with the trucks or celebrate birthdays.

“Morale is at half mast, you can feel it,” observes the officer.

The company's 68 members provide 24-hour guard duty and respond to fires, road and domestic accidents, as well as animal rescues. But today they have to select the calls.

“A lady just came to us to ask for help for a problem with her pet. We told her that this time, we were going to fail her. We now have to establish priorities and choose which cases to treat or not,” regrets Mr. Acuña.

The most pressing problem is fuel. It is not only used to drive trucks: it also powers generators, pumps and other machines essential during interventions.

“Concretely, we will practically no longer be able to move once the heart rate (fuel) starts to drop,” warns the officer, helpless in front of his almost empty box.

The president of the Paraguayan Volunteer Fire Brigade, Lorena Canan, estimates that an intervention can cost from 500,000 guaranis ($80) for a motorcycle accident to up to 350 million ($52,000) for a large-scale fire.

Other barracks are also reducing their response capacity. In Itá, south of Asunción, firefighters limited emergency vehicles to just one emergency vehicle.

“The time will come when we will have to dig into our own pockets, but it is difficult because we have also been affected in our own personal finances,” says Ángel Núñez, a 50-year-old volunteer firefighter.

Uncertainty

The banking crisis, which quickly turned into a political crisis, broke out last Tuesday with the Central Bank (BCP) placing Ueno Bank under supervision for insolvency.

The deposits of almost three million people, half the country's population, have been frozen. These customers suddenly found themselves without access to their accounts, cards and applications.

The scandal provoked massive demonstrations and precipitated the dismissal of President Peña, targeted by an investigation into possible irregularities linked to the bank.

The central bank began returning deposits through a guarantee fund on Thursday and by Saturday had returned some $160 million to around 1.2 million depositors.

However, this measure does not resolve the situation of firefighters: the guarantee fund covers up to $36,000 per account, or barely 11% of the institution's funds.

To recover their money, the firefighters will therefore have to wait an indefinite time for the end of the liquidation procedure of Ueno's assets by the Central Bank, without certainty that the proceeds of this liquidation will be sufficient to return their funds.

Meanwhile, Commander Acuña's voice breaks as he thinks of the people in distress: "it hurts me a lot, because it's me who provides a response, not only to the volunteers but also to the population."

© 2026 AFP

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