Paraguayan police search home of impeached ex-President Santiago Peña

Paraguayan authorities searched the home of former President Santiago Peña near the capital on Sunday as part of an investigation into the collapse of Ueno Bank, for which he was impeached and is in pretrial detention. The search was conducted on suspicion of "abuse of trust" and "misappropriation of funds for personal purposes," according to the prosecutor's office. Peña is accused of overseeing a significant concentration of public and pension funds exceeding $800 million in the now-insolvent bank, and of receiving two loans of about $500,000 from it in May 2024. The banking crisis froze deposits for nearly three million people, half the country's population. Vice President Pedro Alliana has assumed power and ordered that affected taxpayers face no fines or penalties, while deposits for about 1.2 million savers, totaling roughly $158 million, have already been returned.