Paraguay President Santiago Peña Impeached and Placed Under House Arrest

Paraguayan President Santiago Peña was removed from office and placed under house arrest on Friday, UPI reported. The 47 year old leader was detained minutes after the Paraguayan Senate voted 44 to 0 to remove him from office. The impeachment followed allegations of corruption and financial misconduct linked to the collapse of Ueno Bank, one of the largest digital lenders in Paraguay. [1]

The collapse of Ueno Bank has frozen customer accounts and left nearly 3 million people unable to access their funds, according to UPI. As FTMQ News reported earlier, the Central Bank of Paraguay took control of Ueno Bank on November 2, 2026, after the lender's capital adequacy ratio dropped below half of the legal minimum. The central bank president subsequently resigned, and the shutdown locked users out of their accounts when the mobile application ceased operations. [1][4][5]

The banking failure also put approximately 380 million dollars in public social security funds into recovery, as FTMQ News reported previously. Widespread public protests erupted across Paraguay ahead of the Senate vote as citizens demanded accountability for the financial crisis. [4][5]

Peña is an economist who served as the 52nd president of Paraguay from 2023 until his dismissal. Before assuming the presidency, he served on leadership boards for the Central Bank of Paraguay and Banco Amambay, and taught economics at the Catholic University of Asunción. [2]