Former Paraguayan President Santiago Peña Detained After Impeachment Over Bank Collapse

ici.radio-canada.ca (French) —

Former Paraguayan President Santiago Peña has been placed in preventive detention following his impeachment, facing charges of abuse of trust and mismanagement for personal gain related to the collapse of Ueno Bank. Judge Hernan Otazu ordered Peña held at a military facility of the presidential guard in Asunción, where he was transferred Friday for security reasons after initial house arrest. The former president and ex-central bank chief Carlos Carvallo were indicted Saturday, with prosecutors alleging Peña directed over 1.12 billion Canadian dollars in public and pension funds into Ueno Bank. The crisis began Tuesday when the Central Bank seized Ueno for insolvency, freezing deposits of nearly three million clients, about half Paraguay's population. Peña, impeached unanimously by the Senate, had resigned Thursday but was rejected to avoid lifetime senator immunity. New President Pedro Alliana promised full compensation, with around 1.2 million small savers already repaid.


With a significance score of 2.9, this news ranks in the top 9.9% of today's 29272 analyzed articles.

Get summaries of news with significance over 5.5 (usually ~10 stories per week). Read by 10,000+ subscribers: