Conservative Santiago Peña of Paraguay resigned from the presidency of his country on Thursday after the Paraguayan legislature began impeachment proceedings against him for his alleged role in the seizure of one of the largest banks in
the country, which left millions unable to access their own money.
Peña, one of President Donald Trump’s closest allies in any nation, announced his decision to step down in a video message posted to social media on Thursday. He described the situation as “one of the most difficult moments of my life” but asserted that “social peace” and national stability required him to step aside. The bank seizure and subsequent asset freezing has resulted in widespread protests in the nation’s capital, Asunción, in which outraged customers have begun creating street fires and other major disruptions.
The Central Bank of Paraguay seized Ueno Bank, one of the country’s largest financial institutions, on Tuesday, leaving 2.9 million customers without access to their money. The Central Bank found severe evidence of insolvency demanding the freezing of assets to rehabilitate the situation and allegedly to secure the funds potentially lost by the supposed mismanagement of the bank. Opposition members of Congress claimed that Peña played a role in this insolvency, accusing him of corruption and conflicts of interest.
Paraguayan media reported that law enforcement officials on Thursday demanded the “preventative imprisonment” of 27 senior executives at the bank and others implicated, such as former CEO Miguel Vázquez.
“I have made the decision to present my resignation to the presidency of the republic,” Peña said in his message. “I do it thinking about the stability of our country, about social peace, and the need to preserve our democratic institutions.”
Mensaje del Presidente de la República, Santiago Peña, al pueblo paraguayo. pic.twitter.com/RBz6IfFV9L
— Santiago Peña (@SantiPenap) November 5, 2026
Peña offered an apology to the public “if I have in any way failed.”
“Betraying the confidence you have placed in me was never my intention. Every day, I assumed this responsibility with the will to work for Paraguay… but today my priority is just one: the peace of Paraguayans who placed confidence in our financial system.”
“Today we must show once again that democracy must be respected, institutions must be taken care of, and that Paraguay is above our differences. No office is more important than the stability of the republic; no person is above Paraguay,” he concluded.
The Paraguayan Congress was reportedly organizing impeachment proceedings against Peña just hours before his resignation announcement, claiming, according to Reuters, that Peña was behind the “misuse of pension funds and institutional cover-ups” that allegedly led to the insolvency and seizure of Ueno Bank. Peña did not accept any responsibility for the situation in his resignation speech, nor did he address the situation in detail, demanding only that bank customers have their assets returned to them as soon as possible.
The crisis began on Tuesday when the Central Bank of Paraguay seized Ueno Bank and announced customers would not be able to access their money for the foreseeable future. Paraguay, an ally of Taiwan’s, is a rare country that had previously managed to attract significant financial investment and to develop a successful banking center while also having no economic, diplomatic, or other connection to the world’s second-largest economy, China, rejecting all ties to communism. It did this, Argentina’s La Nación recalled, in large part due to “low taxes, macroeconomic stability, and favorable business conditions” developed under Peña’s leadership. Peña has served as president since 2023.
According to La Nación, the Central Bank justified the dramatic measure by revealing that its “solvency index” for Ueno had fallen to about 5.56 percent, while the government demands a minimum regulatory index standard of 12 percent. As a result, the Central Bank is demanding accounting adjustments of over 1.6 trillion guaraníes (about $260 million) that requires all assets to be frozen.
Many customers using the bank, local reports observed, are retirees, who are now left with no way of funding their lives. Another significant point of alarm is the freezing of assets belonging to public agencies, which could lead to government projects and services being shut down.
Santiago Peña’s term was defined by being one of the most consistently conservative voices in Latin America, condemning communism around the world and engaging positively with the United States. Peña brought Paraguay into the fold of the Shield of the Americas anti-organized crime program and participated in the Board of Peace and associated meetings to discuss the future of Gaza and the Middle East. Under Peña, the Trump administration also signed an agreement to jointly develop nuclear technology with Paraguay. In 2025, Peña was one of the few international voices to use his platform at the United Nations General Assembly to honor slain American conservative activist Charlie Kirk.
Follow Frances Martel on Facebook and Twitter.
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