Chaos in Paraguay. With a video published on X, the president of Paraguay Santiago Peña announced his resignation after the collapse involving Ueno Bank. After the banking institution was placed under administration, over 3 million customers, almost half of the Paraguayan population, found themselves with their accounts blocked, without the possibility of accessing their money.
Peña’s resignation
Peña, who was already one step away from impeachment, thus decided to take a step back: “I want to apologize to the population if, at any time, I disappointed expectations. It was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me”.
Half the country with its accounts emptied
Between Tuesday 3 and Wednesday 4 November, almost three million account holders in Paraguay woke up to a blank screen. The Ueno Bank app has stopped showing customer accounts. Founded just three years ago, the institute had quickly become one of the most dynamic in the country, as well as a strategic partner in the management of substantial public funds. Instead of savings, a single line appeared on smartphones: “We cannot show the balance.” Desperate account holders flocked to the streets of Asunción.
The president had tried to reassure account holders and to calm the population’s growing anger over what happened: “The financial system is solid. It has institutions and protection mechanisms”, the president stated in a video published yesterday on
Banking earthquake
At the request of President Peña, again on Tuesday the head of the Central Bank, Carlos Carvallo – who in the past had led Ueno Bank – resigned. At the same time, the judiciary issued arrest warrants for eight senior managers of the institute; among these is President Miguel Vázquez, who turned himself in to the police.
Ueno had more than three million customers, a figure equal to almost half of Paraguay’s population, and administered millions of dollars tied to pensions and other state funds. The Central Bank explained that it had taken control of the institution due to a heavy capital deficit, a necessary measure to protect savers and guarantee the stability of the financial system. The authorities then blocked the bank’s activities while waiting to initiate repayments. Under the law signed by Peña, payment procedures must be completed within five days.
What happens now
The institutional protocol now provides for the interruption of the impeachment procedure underway in the Chamber, while Parliament will be called to formalize the acceptance of the resignation of the head of state. It will then be up to the Senate to proclaim the swearing-in of Vice President Pedro Alliana as the new president and appoint his deputy. Just the previous day, the opposition had collected the signatures necessary to file a motion of “political judgment” against Peña in Parliament. The president was finally abandoned even by his own political force, which in an official note had announced its support for the initiative to remove him.