Paraguay President Santiago Peña Resigns After Ueno Bank Collapse Freezes Millions of Accounts

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña resigned on November 5, 2026, hours after the lower house of Congress approved impeachment charges against him. The move followed the central bank’s intervention in Ueno Bank, a fast-growing digital lender that froze accounts belonging to about 3 million customers in a country of 6.5 million people.

Peña announced the decision in a video address. He said he was resigning with the stability of the country, social peace, and the need to preserve democratic institutions in mind. He apologized to Paraguayans for any failures and stated that no public office could take precedence over the well-being of the nation. Vice President Pedro Alliana is next in line to assume the presidency.

The crisis began earlier in the week when the Banco Central del Paraguay determined that Ueno had breached minimum solvency requirements. The bank’s capital fell below half the legal minimum after regulators corrected its books. Ueno had expanded rapidly under Peña’s administration to claim roughly 60 percent of the adult population as customers. It held substantial public deposits, including pension funds estimated between $800 million and $850 million.

Peña had been a shareholder in Ueno’s holding company until March 2025. He appointed Carlos Carvallo, a former Ueno executive, to lead the central bank. Carvallo resigned earlier in the week at Peña’s request. Several Ueno executives have been detained. Lawmakers from Peña’s own Colorado Party withdrew support as protests spread through Asunción. Demonstrators demanded access to their money, with some banners reading “give us our money back.” Police used water cannons and tear gas in at least one confrontation near the congress building.

The lower house voted 78-0 to impeach Peña minutes after his resignation announcement. It rejected a parallel motion against Alliana. The Senate must now convene as an impeachment court, though the resignation may alter the process. Peña, an economist who took office in August 2023 and an ally of U.S. President Donald Trump, lost the backing of former president Horacio Cartes, who remains the dominant figure in the ruling party.

Central bank officials plan to transfer remaining customer accounts and recoverable assets to other institutions before liquidating what remains of Ueno. The collapse has already weakened the national currency and raised concerns among international investors. Depositors queued at other banks amid fears that no savings were safe.

The episode marks one of the largest banking crises in Paraguay’s recent history and the first time a sitting president has resigned under such circumstances in the post-dictatorship era. Alliana’s ability to stabilize the financial system and restore public confidence will determine the immediate path forward. Peña’s term was scheduled to run until 2028.

International coverage from Reuters, the Guardian, Al Jazeera, the BBC, and the Financial Times confirmed the sequence of the central bank intervention, the scale of frozen accounts, Peña’s prior ownership links, and the timing of the resignation relative to the impeachment vote.