Pedro Alliana was sworn in as Paraguay 53rd president on Friday, minutes after the Senate voted 44 to 0 to remove Santiago Pena over the collapse of Ueno Bank, in one of the fastest presidential transitions in the country modern history. Alliana, a 52 year old former national basketball player and ruling party insider, took the oath in Asuncion after three years as vice president, and he will serve until August 2028. The crisis that put him in office began on Tuesday, when the central bank seized the bank, and it took three days to end a presidency.
Why it matters
The Senate trial was the formal end of a process that had already been decided in the streets and in the lower house. Pena had offered his resignation in a video posted to X on Thursday, saying he was stepping down to preserve the country stability and democratic institutions, and minutes later the lower house voted 78 to 0 to impeach him. The Senate then opened its trial and voted unanimously to remove him, finding him guilty of poor performance over his links to the collapsed bank, despite the resignation he had already offered. Congress had called an extraordinary session of both chambers to settle the question.
The charges centred on Pena ties to the bank at the heart of the crisis. He had been a business partner of Grupo Vazquez, the conglomerate that controls Ueno Bank, until March 2025, and he appointed Carlos Carvallo, a former president of the bank predecessor, to run the central bank that supervises it. Lawmakers accused him of conflicts of interest, misuse of pension funds and institutional cover ups. The bank had grown in less than five years from a niche fintech into the country fifth largest bank by deposits, with 800 million dollars in public money fuelling its growth, including 355 million dollars in state pension funds.
What happens next
The human cost is measured in frozen accounts. Ueno counted nearly three million customers, close to half the country population and more than 60 percent of its adults, and its app, cards and transfers went dark when the central bank intervened. The bank solvency ratio had fallen to 5.56 percent, less than half of the 12 percent regulatory minimum, after poorly documented lending to companies linked to the bank owners. Eight senior executives have been detained, including founder Miguel Vazquez, and prosecutors are investigating Pena for acts related to the supervision of the bank and the placement of public funds in it.
What happens next will be decided in two places at once: the courts, where Pena was placed under house arrest minutes after his removal, and the bank branches, where depositors will judge the new government by whether their money comes back. Alliana promised not to abandon the almost three million depositors, including pensioners, affected by the takeover, and he said those going through a difficult time as a result of the financial collapse will be fully compensated. The central bank has announced phased repayments and plans to move accounts to other banks. The promise is made. The money is the test.
