Paraguayan Senate rejects extension requested by Peña for defense in impeachment

Published at: 06/11/2026 12:56 PM

The Senate of Paraguay rejected this Friday the request of President Santiago Peña to obtain a 72-hour extension to prepare his defense in the impeachment initiated against him due to the banking crisis unleashed after the closure of Ueno bank.

“The necessary votes were not collected, so the extension time is rejected and will be communicated to the President of the Republic,” announced the head of the Congress, Basilio Núñez, after an electronic vote, as published by Sputnik.

Peña had requested an extension of the deadline when he reported that he received the notification of the impeachment at 01:15 GMT this Friday, together with a 15-page accusatory brief and about 300 pages of annexes. Peña considered that having less than 12 hours to prepare his defense violates due process guarantees.

On Thursday, Congress had rejected the resignation presented by the president and moved forward with the process, while ruling out initiating a similar procedure against Vice President Pedro Alliana. Opposition sectors maintain that Peña resigned to avoid being dismissed and taking office as senator for life, which would grant him parliamentary powers and would hinder a possible criminal investigation.

In addition, the Public Ministry announced the opening of criminal cases against Peña and other former authorities linked to the closure of the entity. The crisis originated on Tuesday when the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) intervened the bank after detecting a severe deterioration in its capital, with a solvency of less than 50% of the minimum required, leaving about three million customers without access to their accounts and causing protests.

Mazo News Team