en.malanginspirasi.com – Pedro Alliana was officially sworn in as the 53rd president of Paraguay on Friday, Al Jazeera reported.
He is stepping into the top leadership role after an escalating financial scandal culminated in the swift impeachment and removal of his predecessor, Santiago Peña.
The political transition follows a near-unanimous vote in the 45-member Senate, where 44 lawmakers backed Peña’s removal, with only one abstention.
“I take my leave with gratitude, while fully acknowledging the anguish of those who are currently awaiting answers,” Peña posted on social media shortly after his removal.
The rapid downfall of Peña—a key figure in the dominant Colorado Party—was precipitated by the collapse of Ueno Bank.
The institution’s failure raised intense scrutiny regarding state regulatory oversight and potential conflicts of interest, as Peña had previous financial ties to the bank’s parent entity.
Following his removal from office, state prosecutors ordered Peña placed under house arrest amid an investigation into alleged breach of trust and related offenses.
Law enforcement authorities also issued an arrest warrant for Carlos Carvallo, the former head of Paraguay’s central bank who stepped down earlier in the week, over allegations that the regulatory agency failed in its supervisory obligations.
The ongoing turmoil broke into public view on Tuesday when central bank officials announced that Ueno had breached legal solvency standards, lacking sufficient collateral to back its financial ventures and loans.
Regulators moved to seize the institution and transfer remaining assets to safeguard other lenders, but the intervention immediately locked out nearly three million customers—representing roughly two-thirds of the country’s adult population—from accessing their personal accounts and pension funds.
Before its failure, the institution had grown dynamically into Paraguay’s fifth-largest lender by deposits, fueled in part by $800 million in public funds.
Peña, who was identified in 2023 as a shareholder in Ueno’s parent company, maintained that he had liquidated his holdings in early 2025.
In an effort to diffuse the situation, Peña initially submitted his resignation, pointing to “the need to preserve our democratic institutions.”
However, Paraguay’s Congress declined to accept the voluntary exit, choosing instead to advance formal impeachment proceedings to ensure he did not retain the senatorial immunity granted to former executives.
The strategy drew explicit endorsement from senior party leaders, including former president Horacio Cartes.
“We support the impeachment of the president of the republic, Santiago Pena, in order to restore the republic’s institutions,” Cartes wrote in a public statement.
The lower house initially cleared the impeachment resolution in a 78-0 vote before passing it to the Senate for the final removal decision, while opting not to pursue proceedings against Alliana.
Peña declined to attend Friday’s Senate session in person, sending legal counsel to represent him.
“I do not wish for my presence to be a source of greater division or instability. It is my responsibility to place the country above my own personal fate,” he wrote in a separate statement, despite earlier submitting a request for extra time “to exercise [his] constitutional right to a defence, as the time currently allotted is clearly insufficient.”
With a background as governor of the Ñeembucú department and nearly ten years in the Chamber of Deputies, Alliana steps into the presidency as state prosecutors pursue charges against at least 27 individuals connected to the case, including major shareholder Miguel Vázquez.
Investigators are examining potential crimes including attempted fraud, breach of trust, misappropriation of public funds, and influence peddling related to an estimated $355 million in government pension capital deposited with the firm.
