Peña Offered to Resign but Remains President; 30 of 45 Senators Decide
Paraguay's president announced his resignation on Thursday, but Congress never completed a vote on it. Here is the procedure, the savers' cover and the Ueno ties.
The joint session of Paraguay's Congress opened on Thursday afternoon, Nov. 5, with 65 deputies in the room. It needed 41 to vote on anything. At 6:37 p.m., according to ABC Color's minute-by-minute log, ruling-party deputies left, the lower house fell below that line, and President Santiago Peña's resignation was left without a completed vote.
So as of Friday morning, Nov. 6, Peña formally remains president. The Senate, sitting as a court, resumes his impeachment trial at 10 a.m. local time, and he is summoned to defend himself. Prosecutors are investigating him; he has not been charged.
Much of the English-language coverage says he "resigned" and was "impeached minutes" later, or that Congress "rejects" his resignation. Neither captures it. Paraguay is running two processes at different speeds. The one that decides who holds power is unfinished. The one that decides who gets paid is already law, with a cap per person and a five-business-day clock.
A resignation Congress never finished voting on
The offer itself was plain. Peña, 47, posted a video on X on Thursday citing "the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions," as NPR and AP reported. Interior Minister Enrique Riera delivered the letter to Congress in the early afternoon.
Mensaje del Presidente de la República, Santiago Peña, al pueblo paraguayo. pic.twitter.com/RBz6IfFV9L
— Santiago Peña (@SantiPenap) November 5, 2026
Article 202 lists among its duties "To accept or to reject the resignation of the President of the Republic and that of the Vice President;" and names no special majority. Article 185 sets the default, a simple majority of members present, with a quorum of half plus one of each chamber, hence the 41 deputies and 23 senators needed. See Paraguay's constitution.
Why the deputies left is contested, and each version belongs to someone. Reuters' text, carried by Al Jazeera, says Colorado lawmakers "walked out, as it became clear there were not enough votes to accept it." Raúl Latorre, the deputies' president, said it followed internal talks and that the party has a majority. ABC Color's log calls it a "maniobra", Spanish for a manoeuvre.
The outcome is not contested. MercoPress, citing Argentina's La Nación, says Peña "formally remains president." Hugo Estigarribia, a constitutional lawyer and former senator, wrote on X "pues aquel sigue siendo presidente de la República" (translated here: "he is still president of the Republic"). AP wrote that "Both houses declined to accept Peña's offer to resign." The more exact description, from the Paraguayan reports, is that the joint session ended without a completed vote.
Senate President Basilio "Bachi" Núñez then convened the chamber as a court, and the deputies' prosecutors read the libelo acusatorio, the formal charge sheet, just before 8 p.m. Peña wrote on X Thursday night, in Rio Times' translation: With the impeachment trial continuing, I will appear and exercise my right to a defence.
Opposition legislators claimed on the floor that he had left the country; Argentine government sources said they had no record of him entering Argentina, and a spokesman said he was in Asunción.
What 78-0 decided, and what takes 30
The Chamber of Deputies had acted hours earlier. The same afternoon, ABC's log shows, it first refused to accuse Vice President Pedro Alliana, 48 against and 30 in favour, then approved the accusation against Peña at 2:20 p.m.: 78 votes, none against. Only 78 of its 80 seats are filled, so that was every sitting deputy, per Última Hora.
| Step | Result | Needed |
|---|---|---|
| Deputies accuse Peña (Thu.) | 78 yes, 0 no | Two-thirds of members present (52 of 78) |
| Deputies vote on accusing Alliana (Thu.) | 30 yes, 48 no; rejected | 52 of 78 |
| Joint session on the resignation (Thu.) | No vote completed; quorum lost | 41 deputies and 23 senators present |
| Senate verdict (trial resumes Fri., 10 a.m.) | Pending | 30 of 45 senators; 16 can block |
That vote decided that Peña goes on trial in a juicio político, a political trial. The accusation, filed Wednesday by 35 legislators under Article 225, centres on a conflict of interest from his stake in Ueno Holding, pension money concentrated in Ueno Bank, and an alleged cover-up at the central bank. It did not decide guilt.
Guilt is the Senate's to find. Article 225 says it judges "by absolute majority of two-thirds" and may "declare them guilty, for the sole purpose of removing them from their offices." Under Article 185 that is two-thirds of all 45 members, not of those present: 30 votes. Absences and abstentions count as not guilty, so 16 senators can block.
The party that holds the numbers has turned. Horacio Cartes, the Colorado Party's president and a former president, announced it would support impeachment: We will not side with the theft of public, private and pension funds,
in Al Jazeera's translation. The 48-30 vote on Alliana means the Colorado majority keeps a successor in place however the case ends.
Under Article 234 the vice president replaces the president until the end of the term, Aug. 15, 2028, which is 648 days from Friday. The vice presidency would then be vacant, and the calendar bites: the first three years of this term ended on Aug. 15, 2026, so Congress, by absolute majority, designates the replacement. Voters do not. ABC's log has Colorado senator Óscar "Cachito" Salomón naming senator Antonio Barrios as front-runner.
The real fight is over the resignation, because of Article 189:
"The former Presidents of the Republic, democratically elected, will be Senators for life of the Nation, unless they were submitted to political trial and found guilty. They will not integrate the quorum. They will have voice but not vote."
Paraguay's constitution, Article 189
Leaving by resignation and leaving by conviction are different exits; only one can produce a senador vitalicio, a senator for life. Article 191 then bars detaining a senator except when caught in the act, and requires a two-thirds vote to lift that protection, the desafuero. Whether a senator for life carries those fueros, or immunity, is argued, not settled. Al Jazeera says ex-presidents "enjoy a degree of legal immunity from prosecution as members of the legislature." El Tribuno, republished by Argentina's Examedia, says prosecutors might have to ask for a desafuero.
The opposition's reading is that acceptance would hand Peña that shield; senators Yolanda Paredes and Esperanza Martínez say so. Adolfo Villalba, one of Thursday's protesters, told NPR and AP:
"Let the impeachment process take place and let him lose his immunity,"
Adolfo Villalba, protester
The constitution is silent on a resignation tendered between accusation and verdict. The same El Tribuno analysis says acceptance would not automatically end the trial but could become a dispute over whether it "lost its object." For proportion, MercoPress notes that Peña is only the second president since 1989 whose case has reached the Senate; the Senate removed Fernando Lugo in 2012 "in a fast-track process."
Where a saver's money stands
While the senators count, Ueno Bank's depositors are being paid on a different clock. On Tuesday, Nov. 3, the central bank's board unanimously began "resolution", its wind-down procedure, after the bank's solvency ratio fell below 50% of the legal minimum "following accounting adjustments" (in translation). Interventores named by the Superintendency of Banks run it and manage "an orderly exit" (in translation), per the central bank's statements, as ABC Color compiled them.
The bank had about 2.9 million customers, hence the long lines outside branches. Young Ueno staff in uniform burned credit cards outside the Labor Ministry, which estimates about 7,000 jobs are affected.
An emergency law, passed Wednesday, Nov. 4 and promulgated by Peña, advances up to 40 minimum wages per depositor, starting within 24 hours and finishing within five business days, with overdue debts to Ueno deducted. The first wave, announced Thursday night, covers depositors with up to G. 10,000,000 who owe Ueno nothing and hold an account at another bank. The central bank's wording: If the total of your deposits does not exceed ₲10,000,000, you will receive all of it
(in translation).
| Layer | Amount | Roughly in dollars | Conditions |
|---|---|---|---|
| First payment wave (from Thursday night, Nov. 5) | Up to G. 10,000,000 | $1,565 to $1,675 | No debt to Ueno; account at another bank; paid in full if deposits do not exceed this |
| Emergency-law advance | Up to 40 minimum wages (about G. 121.7 million) | About $19,800 | Starts within 24 hours; ends within five business days; overdue debts deducted |
| Deposit guarantee cap | 75 minimum wages (G. 228,300,000) | About $36,000 (AP) | Per person or company; central bank says it covers full balances for an estimated 97% of customers |
| Above the cap | Not guaranteed | n/a | Central bank promises rules to cover "as much as possible" (in translation); none announced as of Friday morning |
For most savers the answer is yes: the central bank says the guarantee covers full balances for an estimated 97% of customers, and the law sets a five-business-day limit, though dates for later groups are unannounced. Dividing the cap by 75 implies a minimum wage of G. 3,044,000, so the first wave is 4.4% of the cap and the advance 53.3%. Counting five business days from Wednesday or Thursday lands around Nov. 10 to 12. That is this writer's count; the central bank has not published a date.
The gaps lie above the cap, and in the state's own money. Ueno held roughly $800 million to $850 million in public deposits, according to AP and Reuters, including the state pension and health fund. Savers' groups put it above $860 million, per ABC. The sources do not say whether public bodies are capped like individuals. People and companies linked to the bank are excluded from the guarantee and must return any funds received within 24 hours.
Ueno's owners and the president's ties
Everything here is alleged or reported, not proven. On Thursday, per AP, a judge ordered six Ueno executives, including founder Miguel Vázquez and bank President Juan Manuel Gustale, jailed pending trial. Prosecutors have charged 27 officials and associates with breach of trust and attempted fraud; Infobae says they are accused of lending to companies of the same group outside normal credit-risk standards. Gustale's lawyer, José Fernández Zacur, said: The president or board is not responsible for deciding who receives a particular loan.
No conviction has been reported.
The president's ties are a matter of reporting and denial. Reuters writes that Peña says he was a Grupo Vázquez shareholder until March 2025, when he sold his stake, and that Ueno says he never had a direct relationship with the bank as a shareholder or investor. ABC Color reported in April 2025 that he held shares in Ueno Holding; MercoPress says April for the exit, a small discrepancy.
Reuters says Peña calls the controversy "the political escalation of what began as a regulatory issue." Attorney General Emiliano Rolón Fernández has ordered three criminal investigations, including allegations involving Peña, who says he will cooperate. The fallout has reached Argentina: Infobae reports that the Argentine branch of Kaitel SRL, part of the ITTI technology firm serving the group, sent some of its more than 900 workers an unpaid-suspension notice from Nov. 5 to Dec. 4, blaming the Ueno resolution.
That is why the labels matter. "Impeached" is true only of the first step, the deputies' accusation. "Rejected" overstates a vote that never finished, and "resigned" describes the offer, not the act. The larger gap is the vote that was never completed.
Peña said it himself on Thursday night: The payment to savers cannot stay pending on what happens to me.
In law, it does not. The saver's money has a clock counted in business days. Who governs has one counted in senators, and so far it has not started.
