Arrested the former president of Paraguay after being dismissed as senator

BarcelonaThe former president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, was arrested tonight at his residence in Asunción, a few hours after the Senate removed him from office in an impeachment trial for “malfeasance in office.” The Prosecutor's Office is investigating whether Peña committed the crimes of breach of trust, administration for personal gain, and influence peddling in relation to the collapse of Ueno Bank, a conglomerate in which he held shares until March 2025 and where millions in funds from state pension funds ended up during his term.

Peña submitted his resignation on Thursday, and they were able to arrest him because the Senate had removed him from his position as senator only a few hours earlier, in a decision approved unanimously by the 44 senators present—the majority from his own party. The Paraguayan Constitution establishes that democratically elected former presidents are lifetime senators and enjoy immunity, unless they are subjected to an impeachment trial and declared guilty. The former president will testify today before the Prosecutor's Office.

The origin of the presidential crisis is the collapse of Ueno Bank, with which he was allegedly linked: he held shares in the entity's companies until March 2025, according to the accusation. The entity began operating as a bank in November 2023, three months before Peña's arrival in government, and thanks to an intense digital strategy, it reached 2.9 million clients in a country of 6.1 million inhabitants.

The former vice president, Pedro Alliana, was sworn in as president in an extraordinary session of Congress and will govern until August 2028.