Source : Reuters | AI-generated illustration
ASUNCIÓN, November 5, 2026 — Paraguayan President Santiago Peña resigned on Thursday after the collapse of digital lender ueno left millions of customers unable to reach their accounts, triggering street protests, an impeachment vote and criminal investigations.
In a recorded address, Peña said he was stepping down “with the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions in mind.” He apologised if he had failed the public and insisted he had never intended to betray their trust.
Reuters reported that Peña had former business links to ueno, which grew rapidly from a niche fintech firm into a mid-tier bank handling close to $850 million in public funds and claiming about three million customers — roughly half of Paraguay’s population of 6.5 million, or about 60 percent of adults.
Paraguay’s central bank intervened earlier this week after finding that ueno had breached minimum solvency requirements. Deposits, pensions and wages were frozen, leaving many families without money for food and daily expenses. Eight ueno executives were detained and the central bank chief resigned amid the fallout, according to international reporting.
Lawmakers accused Peña of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional failures linked to the bank’s expansion under his right-wing administration. The lower house voted unanimously to impeach him minutes after he offered to resign. Both chambers declined to accept the resignation immediately, with the Senate moving instead toward a trial that could remove him from office.
Vice President Pedro Alliana is next in the line of succession. The lower house rejected an impeachment motion against Alliana while approving the case against Peña, according to Reuters and other international outlets including the BBC, The Guardian, AP and NBC News.
Peña said his greatest wish was that customers’ funds be returned, that the deposit guarantee fund fulfil its purpose, and that public money be protected. Authorities said they had begun moving accounts and arranging repayments, but the scale of the freeze left large parts of the economy disrupted for days and sparked demonstrations in the capital.
Congress scheduled further sessions on the resignation and impeachment. Peña confirmed he would appear before the Senate. Prosecutors announced a criminal investigation hours after the resignation video was released, intensifying pressure on a presidency that until this week had presented ueno’s growth as a success story for digital finance in the region.
Source: Reuters on X, with background from BBC, The Guardian, AP, NBC News and LA Times reporting.
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