ASUNCIÓN.- Paraguay's Senate opened the impeachment trial against President Santiago Peña at 7:50 p.m. local time on Thursday, November 5, 2026, hours after ruling-party deputies walked out of a joint session of Congress and left his resignation frozen — and after Peña announced he will face the trial and defend himself.
The Senate sat formally as a trial court, with its president, Basilio "Bachi" Núñez, presiding, and gave the floor to the team of deputies appointed as accusing prosecutors, who began setting out the five counts of the indictment for poor performance of duties, ABC Color reported in its live coverage from inside Congress. The charges center on Peña's responsibility in the collapse of Ueno Bank, the impact on the pension funds of the Social Security Institute (IPS), and an alleged deliberate scheme that benefited sectors tied to the government.
No verdict is expected tonight. Senator Derlis Maidana explained that the trial has two stages: Thursday night's session formally recognizes the deputies as accusing prosecutors, and on Friday the senators will be sworn in as the judging tribunal, ABC Color reported. To convict and remove Peña, 30 of the 45 senators must vote guilty. Peña remains formally president, because Congress never accepted his resignation.
From "tomorrow" to tonight in one hour
The trial's opening came after an evening of contradictory signals. At about 6:40 p.m., opposition senator Celeste Amarilla told reporters that Núñez himself had confirmed to her the trial would resume on Friday, since the resignation had not been dealt with for lack of quorum. Within the hour, Núñez urgently convened the Senate for 7:30 p.m. the same night, and the session opened at 7:50 p.m.
The about-face followed the collapse of the joint session at 6:37 p.m., when ruling Colorado Party deputies left their seats during the vote on Peña's resignation, breaking the quorum of 41 deputies needed to sit validly. The Senate had already voted 24-20 against accepting the resignation, but the lower house never completed its part — so the resignation was neither accepted nor rejected, and the swearing-in of Vice President Pedro Alliana, scheduled for 6 p.m., never happened. Read more: Santiago Peña's Resignation Freezes in Congress as Deputies Walk Out — Impeachment Trial Set for Tonight.
Peña: "I will present myself and exercise my right to defense"
At 7:23 p.m., minutes after the joint session collapsed, Peña broke his silence with a message on X, announcing he will submit to the trial and appear before Congress to defend himself.
"Ante la continuidad del juicio político, me presentaré y ejerceré mi derecho a la defensa. Lo haré con argumentos y pruebas, con respeto a la Constitución y a las instituciones de la República. Aun cuando ya hayan adelantado su decisión, voy a ejercer ese derecho," Peña wrote. In English: "Given the continuation of the impeachment trial, I will present myself and exercise my right to defense. I will do so with arguments and evidence, with respect for the Constitution and the institutions of the Republic. Even though they have already announced their decision, I will exercise that right."
Peña also addressed the criminal investigation opened against him on Thursday, pledging full cooperation: "Colaboraré plenamente con las instituciones competentes para que se esclarezca lo ocurrido, se determinen las responsabilidades y quienes hayan infringido la ley respondan ante la Justicia. ... Nadie está por encima de la ley." He asked the country to keep the savers' problem separate from his fate: "El pago a los ahorristas no puede quedar pendiente de lo que ocurra conmigo. ... Mi suerte personal no está por encima del Paraguay."
His whereabouts, however, remain unknown. House Speaker Raúl Latorre told reporters after the failed session that he does not know where the president is: "Francamente desconozco dónde está ubicado el presidente." Earlier in the afternoon, presidential spokesman Guillermo Grance had said the same. Senator Gustavo Leite, a Colorado loyalist, doubted Peña would appear at all: "El juicio político sigue, pero no creo que alguien que ya renunció aparezca a un juicio."
Three criminal cases, and a crowd outside Congress
The trial is not Peña's only front. The Attorney General's office announced on Thursday the opening of three criminal cases against him over the Ueno Bank affair, with a team of three prosecutors — Elena Fiore Franco, Silvia González Vöster and Christian Manuel Cáceres — from the Specialized Unit for Economic Crimes and Anti-Corruption, under Resolution FGE No. 4474, Hoy reported. The cases cover alleged illicit enrichment, money laundering, influence peddling and administration for personal benefit, and extend to members of the Central Bank board and public institutions that deposited funds in Ueno, including the IPS, Itaipú, Yacyretá, the ANDE power company and the Finance Ministry.
Outside Congress, the crowd that had gathered through the afternoon stayed into the night. At 8:05 p.m., protesters held a peaceful sit-in on the asphalt in front of the legislature, following the trial live on loudspeakers, mobile phones and portable radios, as savers hurt by the Ueno collapse, IPS retirees and social groups demanded the trial go ahead and Peña go to jail, rejecting the resignation as a pact for impunity.
What comes next
On Friday, the senators will be sworn in as the judging tribunal, and the trial will move to its decisive phase. Peña is the second president to face impeachment in Paraguay's recent history, after Fernando Lugo (2008-2012), who was removed from office. Also pending: a new joint session to settle the resignation, which Senator Blanca Ovelar said she will formally request; the election of a new vice president; the criminal investigation; and the fate of millions of savers still unable to reach their money. The crisis began with the collapse of Ueno Bank, a digital lender with about 3 million customers and roughly $850 million in public funds under its administration, seized by the central bank on Tuesday, November 3 — see Paraguay President Santiago Peña Resigns After Ueno Bank Collapse Freezes Millions of Savers' Accounts.
Sources: ABC Color live coverage, November 5, 2026; La Nación, November 5, 2026; Hoy, November 5, 2026; El Sol, November 5, 2026; Clarín, November 5, 2026. All times are local time in Asunción, Paraguay. Cover photo: Santiago Peña in 2024, public domain photo from the Presidency of Ecuador via Wikimedia Commons, cropped to 1920×1080 with a small flag of Paraguay added in the top-right corner.