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Santiago Peña no longer holds the presidency of Paraguay, but he is still surrounded by his former bodyguards. The difference is that now they are guarding him while he is serving a measure of deprivation of liberty ordered by the court.
As soon as he was dismissed this Friday by the Senate for "poor performance of duties" for his participation in the Ueno Bank scandal, a financial entity intervened this week by the country's Central Bank, the politician was placed under house arrest at the request of the prosecutor's office.
However, at the stroke of midnight, members of his former bodyguard took Peña from his house, in the Santísima Trinidad neighborhood of Asunción, and took him to the headquarters of the Presidential Escort Regiment (REP), located near the Mburuvichtá Róga presidential house, which he occupied until a few days ago.
The reason for the change? Security reasons. According to local media, as soon as the news broke that the former ruler would remain deprived of liberty in his residence, dozens of citizens gathered around the house to protest against the measure and demand that he be sent to prison.
The transfer of the former president was marked by moments of tension.
As seen in the videos broadcast by the newspapers ABC Color and La Nación, some protesters managed to bypass the security cordon and set up in front of Peña's residence to insult him, throw eggs at him and hit the vehicles leaving it.
Some of those gathered confronted the uniformed officers, who had to fire rubber bullets.
A police officer was injured by a projectile during the events, the newspaper ABC Color reported.
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It is unknown how long Peña will remain at the headquarters of the REP, a unit of the Paraguayan army in charge of the security and protection of the president, his family, as well as former presidents and foreign dignitaries visiting the South American country.
However, for now, the dismissed president must appear this Saturday before the prosecutors investigating the case of the intervened Ueno Bank, a bank of which the former ruler was a shareholder until 2025.
After the fall of the financial institution, Peña presented his resignation, a decision that his critics considered a maneuver to avoid justice. The reason? If his resignation had been accepted, Peña would have become a senator for life and would have retained privileges that would make his criminal prosecution difficult.
The decision to provisionally deprive the politician of his liberty was criticized by his lawyer.
"He always said that he will submit to any investigation like any citizen," criminal lawyer Ricardo Preda told the local press.
Returning the money
But while the investigations progress, the new Paraguayan authorities have begun to serve Ueno Bank clients.
"In the two days that we made the payments, Thursday and Friday, we have reached a total of 1,196,000 people who have already benefited from the payment of the state guarantee," reported the interim president of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP), Pedro Acosta, upon leaving a meeting with the new president Pedro Alliana.
The official revealed that, so far, a total of 996 million guaraníes have been returned, equivalent to around US$160 million.
Ueno Bank's intervention left some three million clients without access to their money and unleashed a wave of citizen protests.
"My priority is for savers to get their money back," Alliana wrote on her Instagram account.
For his part, the president of the Social Security Institute (IPS), Derlis León, assured that all retirees in the country will receive their pensions on the corresponding date, including the 32,000 who received them in the intervened bank.
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