Peña skips Senate impeachment trial as Paraguay reels from Ueno bank collapse
ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguayan President Santiago Peña failed to appear for his impeachment trial in the Senate on Friday despite vowing to defend himself in person, as lawmakers moved toward a verdict that could remove him from office over the dramatic collapse of a bank tied to his administration.
Senators voted 39-3 to reject Peña’s request for another 72 hours to prepare his defense. When neither he nor a lawyer showed up at the scheduled time to argue his case, senators moved on without him and began reviewing the evidence against him.
His lawyers, Ricardo Preda and Adolfo Ferreiro, arrived soon after and argued that senators had denied Peña enough time to prepare and should have accepted his resignation rather than pressing ahead with the trial.
The legal distinction matters. Paraguay’s Constitution grants democratically elected former presidents parliamentary immunity from prosecution through a lifetime senate seat, unless they have been convicted in an impeachment trial. Prosecutors on Thursday opened three criminal investigations into the bank’s collapse, including complaints against Peña, Vice President Pedro Alliana and current and former officials at the central bank and the state pension fund.
Ferreiro said the defense reserved the right to challenge the proceedings before Paraguay’s Supreme Court and international human rights bodies, arguing that Peña had been denied due process.
Peña had vowed Thursday night to appear, writing on X, “I will present myself and exercise my right to defense."
By Friday morning, he was asking for more time. He said he had received the summons only hours before the session, along with about 300 pages of accusations and evidence, leaving him no time to hire a lawyer or review the case. In other countries that have impeached presidents in recent years, including the United States and Brazil, accused leaders have had weeks to prepare a defense.
Peña’s government also began to unravel on Friday, deepening the political crisis. Interior Minister Enrique Riera resigned late Thursday, followed Friday by chief of staff Javier Giménez and presidential legal adviser Roberto Moreno.
In just three days, the bank Ueno’s implosion has plunged Paraguay into its deepest political crisis in more than a decade. Regulators seized the bank before dawn Tuesday. By Thursday afternoon, Peña had offered to resign as his own party turned on him.
“It was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me,” he said in a video address as Paraguayans took to the streets of Asunción, the capital, and other cities, clashing with police and demanding that Peña be held accountable.
Former President Horacio Cartes, Peña’s mentor and the patriarch of the long-ruling conservative Colorado Party, publicly backed his ouster. The lower house then voted 78-0 to impeach Peña and send the case to the Senate. It was a stunning reversal for the former International Monetary Fund economist, whose presidency had rested on the backing of his party’s most powerful figures.
Peña’s allies tried Thursday to get Congress to accept his resignation rather than impeach him. When they saw they lacked the votes, they walked out of a joint session called to consider it, leaving too few lawmakers to proceed.
Conviction requires 30 votes in the 45-member Senate. Either way, Alliana, who survived his own impeachment attempt Thursday, will serve out the term through August 2028.
The impeachment charges center on Peña’s close ties to Ueno, which grew from a little-known lender into one of Paraguay’s largest banks in just a few years, taking in more than $800 million in public funds.
Lawmakers cite Peña’s stake in Ueno’s holding company, which he sold only last year, and his appointment of a former Ueno executive to run the central bank that regulated it. They also accuse him of letting public pension deposits at the bank exceed legal limits.
Former Ueno CEO Miguel Vázquez has been charged with crimes including breach of trust and attempted fraud, and a judge has ordered six bank directors held in pretrial detention. Police and prosecutors raided company offices in Asunción and towed nine luxury vehicles from Vázquez’s home early Friday.
Ueno’s nearly 3 million customers still cannot withdraw cash, make digital payments or use their bank cards. The central bank calls the collapse an isolated case and insists the broader financial system is safe.
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