Paraguay's President Leaves Office as Bank Crisis Freezes Savings
Santiago Peña left the presidency after a banking collapse left millions of people without access to their savings, according to reports from The Guardian and The New York Times.
Paraguay's president, Santiago Peña, resigned on Thursday after a political and financial crisis collapsed the country's banking system in recent days, The Guardian reported. The report, written by South America correspondent Tiago Rogero, said the crisis centered on Ueno Bank.
According to The Guardian's summary, Peña's administration had authorized Ueno Bank to expand its operations sharply before the collapse, and the bank rose quickly in just a few years under Peña. The summary did not include the remainder of that account, so the full scope of the bank's growth is not stated in the material available for this report.
The New York Times, in a separate report, said Peña was impeached and removed from office on Friday after a major bank went under. The Times said millions of people lost access to their savings and described the bank as having "close ties to his administration" in its report on the removal.
The two accounts differ on how and when Peña left office. The Guardian described a resignation on Thursday, while The New York Times described an impeachment and removal on Friday. The available summaries do not reconcile the two accounts or explain the sequence of events between them.
Both outlets link the banking collapse to the political situation in Paraguay. The Guardian's report was published on November 5, 2026, and the Times report on November 6, 2026. The summaries available for this report do not state the total value of frozen deposits, the number of account holders affected, or the steps taken since the leadership change.
Sources: The Guardian: Paraguay’s president quits after millions of people’s savings frozen in bank crisis; The New York Times: Paraguay’s President Removed Over Financial Crisis.