Peña's Aides Quit as Paraguay's Senate Resumes Impeachment Over Ueno Bank Collapse

Paraguay's political roof caved in fast. Interior Minister Enrique Riera resigned late Thursday, and by Friday Peña's chief of staff, Javier Giménez, and legal adviser Roberto Moreno had walked out too — hours after the Senate refused the president's request for 72 more hours to build a defense in his impeachment trial over the failure of Ueno Bank.

Peña cried foul on the timing, saying on X that he got the summons only hours before the session along with roughly 300 pages of accusations and evidence. That left him no window to hire a lawyer or read the case, he wrote. The Senate rejected the delay request anyway and pressed ahead Friday.

Ueno's fall was brutally quick. Regulators seized the digital lender before dawn Tuesday; by Thursday afternoon Peña had offered to resign, telling Paraguayans in a video address, according to ABC News, that it was never his intention to betray their trust. Crowds hit the streets of Asunción and other cities, clashing with police and demanding accountability.

The bank had ballooned from an obscure lender into one of Paraguay's largest, pulling in more than $800 million in public funds and counting close to 3 million customers — nearly half the country's population. Those customers still can't pull cash, make digital payments or use their cards. The central bank calls the collapse isolated and insists the wider financial system is sound.

Lawmakers point to Peña's stake in Ueno's holding company, which he sold just last year, and his pick of a former Ueno executive to run the central bank that oversaw it. They also accuse him of letting public pension deposits at the bank blow past legal limits. Former President Horacio Cartes, Peña's mentor and the Colorado Party patriarch, has publicly backed removing him.

The math is messy for everyone. Conviction needs 30 votes in the 45-member Senate, and Peña's allies walked out Thursday when they saw they didn't have the numbers — leaving him in office. If he resigns instead of being convicted, the Constitution hands him a lifetime Senate seat with immunity, which is why his camp wants Congress to accept the resignation and his opponents want a conviction. Prosecutors opened three criminal investigations Thursday, and former Ueno CEO Miguel Vázquez faces charges including breach of trust and attempted fraud, while a judge ordered six bank directors held. Either way, Vice President Pedro Alliana is in line to finish the term through August 2028.