Paraguay's President Santiago Peña resigned on Thursday, brought down by the collapse of ueno, the digital bank to which he had former business links — and minutes after he announced he was stepping down, the lower house of Congress voted unanimously, 78-0, to impeach him anyway, Reuters and the Associated Press reported from Asunción. Peña announced his decision in a video posted on X as lawmakers debated his impeachment, saying he was resigning “with the stability of our country, social peace, and the need to preserve our democratic institutions in mind.”

Source: Reuters, Nov 5; Associated Press, Nov 5

The 78-0 vote was a stunning repudiation by Peña's own long-ruling Colorado Party, whose lawmakers joined the opposition after three days of demonstrations rocked the capital, AP reported. The charges now go to the Senate, where a two-thirds majority is required to convict and formally remove a president — and Peña's resignation must also be ratified by the Senate, Reuters reported. Congress was expected to formally accept the resignation later on Thursday, clearing the way for Vice President Pedro Alliana to be sworn in as president; Alliana would serve out Peña's term through August 2028, AP said. The lower house rejected a separate impeachment motion against Alliana himself.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 5; Reuters via DevDiscourse, Nov 5

Peña, an economist elected in 2023 and a close ally of US President Donald Trump, expressed contrition but stopped short of accepting responsibility for the banking crisis. “I also want to apologize to the people if I have failed them at any point. It was never my intention to betray the trust they placed in me,” he said, AP reported. “My greatest wish is that the return of those funds be guaranteed, that the deposit guarantee fund fulfill its purpose, and that public funds — as well as the resources that belong to all Paraguayans — be protected,” Reuters quoted him as saying.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 5; Reuters, Nov 5

How a bank collapse took down a president

Ueno exploded from an obscure finance company into a household name in less than five years, claiming more than 60 percent of Paraguay's adults as customers, AP reported. Paraguay's central bank intervened after determining the bank had breached minimum solvency requirements: once its books were corrected — inspectors had found poorly documented lending to companies linked to its owners — ueno's capital fell to less than half the legal minimum, Reuters and AP reported. The bank's roughly 3 million customers, in a country of 6.5 million people, have been unable to access their accounts; its app, cards and transfers went dark and its branches locked their doors.

Source: Reuters, Nov 5; Associated Press, Nov 5

The political charges were conflict of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional cover-up — accusations made by lawmakers, which Peña has repeatedly rejected, describing the controversy as the political escalation of what began as a technical and regulatory issue and arguing any wrongdoing should be addressed through the courts, Reuters reported. Ueno administered close to $850 million in public funds (yaani roughly $85 crore in Indian counting), including money from the state pension and health fund, AP reported. Peña was a shareholder of Grupo Vázquez, the group that owned the bank, until March 2025, and he had appointed Carlos Carvallo — formerly president of ueno's predecessor — to run the central bank that supervised it; Carvallo resigned earlier this week.

Source: Reuters, Nov 5; Associated Press, Nov 5

Prosecutors issued arrest warrants for eight ueno executives on Tuesday; they later turned themselves in, courts froze their assets, and some were placed under house arrest, Reuters reported. AP reported prosecutors have also charged 27 bank officials and business associates with offences including breach of trust and attempted fraud; lawyers for several of the detained said they needed time to review the allegations. Ueno itself has made no public statement. Officials said they had begun repaying depositors and opening new accounts elsewhere for about 280,000 people who had banked only with ueno, and interim central bank president Pedro Acosta Bernal insisted “the banking system is sound,” AP reported.

Source: Reuters, Nov 5; Associated Press, Nov 5

Thousands protested for a third day on Thursday — retirees, depositors, students and workers demanding their savings, wages and pensions back, and hundreds of ueno and Grupo Vázquez employees protested outside the Labour Ministry over unpaid wages. “Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” protester Luis Pineda told AP on Wednesday. “We are fed up with 70 years of plunder.” JPMorgan told clients the ueno developments had “rapidly acquired a political dimension” and that risks to the wider financial system would hinge on “the speed and transparency” of the authorities' response, Reuters reported.

Source: Associated Press, Nov 5; Reuters, Nov 5

What happens next

The Senate is the immediate arena: it must ratify the resignation and decide whether the impeachment trial proceeds against a president who has already quit. Alliana's swearing-in would keep the Colorado Party in power but under a new face, while prosecutors pursue the ueno case and the central bank works through moving 3 million customers' accounts to other banks. For a country long prized by foreign investors for its stability, how fast depositors get their money back will decide whether Thursday was the end of the crisis or only its political first act.