Asunción (Paraguay) (AFP) - Paraguayan President Santiago Peña resigned on Thursday in the midst of a banking crisis that froze the deposits of almost half of the population and unleashed massive protests against this ally of Washington.

First modification: 05/11/2026 - 21:07

Hundreds of people came out to protest on Wednesday for the second consecutive night in Asunción, the capital of this small South American country. There were clashes with the police, who responded with tear gas and water cannons to disperse them.

"I don't even want to talk anymore, it's not worth it because I ran out of money," lamented Reinaldo Gómez, 48, a fruit street vendor in the center of Asunción.

"Now we have to wait four hours to be assigned which bank we will go to to recover our effort," he said.

With banners that read "Impeachment of Santi Peña", savers demanded to be able to withdraw their money after the collapse of Ueno Bank, one of the country's main banks, which left almost three million savers without access to their deposits.

Peña announced his resignation after his own party withdrew its support in Congress.

Minutes later, the deputies voted unanimously to initiate a political trial against him, but refused to open another against Vice President Pedro Alliana, 52, who will then succeed him.

"I have made the decision to present my resignation to the presidency of the Republic (...) I want to apologize to the people if at any time I have failed," Peña said in a video on his X account.

The president stated that his priority is "the peace of mind of Paraguayans who entrusted their savings" to the country's financial system.

Signatures

The crisis broke out on Tuesday, when the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) intervened in Ueno Bank due to a serious lack of capital.

In addition to savers' deposits, funds from state organizations were frozen, including the Social Security Institute.

The intervention surprised Nadia González when she was waiting for a loan to be disbursed. "Ueno approved us the loan for our first house. But they never disbursed us," he told AFP.

"Now we have nowhere to live," added González, 26 years old and mother of three children.

Peña, former Minister of Finance who assumed the presidency in 2023 with a mandate until 2028, had shares in a group that controlled the bank and which he disposed of in 2025.

After the intervention of Ueno Bank, Peña demanded the resignation of the head of the Central Bank and enacted a law that set a maximum period of five business days to return most of the funds to depositors.

But it wasn't enough. On Wednesday, opposition deputies gathered the necessary signatures to file charges against Peña for conflict of interest. They reproached him for having favored the bank with regulatory decisions and deposits of pension funds.

Fueros

Both chambers met in an extraordinary session at 4:00 p.m. local time (7:00 p.m. GMT) to decide whether to accept the resignation or reject it to continue with the impeachment trial.

Dozens of people accompanied the session in the Plaza del Congreso in the center of Asunción.

Peña's privileges are at stake. Constitutionalist Alcibiades González Delvalle told AFP that "the resignation cannot be accepted right off the bat with a political trial underway."

"In the case of a presidential resignation, the president of Congress must call both chambers to discuss its acceptance or rejection. If acceptance is given, Peña maintains his privileges," said Delvalle.

If, however, he is found guilty in a political trial, "he loses his jurisdiction," said the constitutionalist.

Delvalle highlighted that "in both situations, the vice president" Pedro Alliana takes over.

© 2026 AFP

The content you requested does not exist or is no longer available.