ASUNCIÓN.- Santiago Peña's resignation as president of Paraguay was left frozen on Thursday, November 5, 2026, after ruling-party deputies walked out of a joint session of Congress, breaking quorum before lawmakers could vote to accept it. The Senate had voted on the resignation minutes earlier, at 6:15 p.m. local time, but the lower house never completed its part — and the swearing-in of Vice President Pedro Alliana, scheduled for 6 p.m., never happened.
Instead, Congress president Basilio "Bachi" Núñez urgently convened the Senate as a trial court for 7:30 p.m. local time on Thursday night, and Peña announced he will face the impeachment trial and 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 said in a post on X, ABC Color reported. 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."
The walkout that froze the handover
At 6:15 p.m., after the speakers' list ended in the joint session, the Senate moved to vote on accepting Peña's resignation. But the process stalled in the lower house, where deputies had not settled on a unified position. As the chair ordered an exhaustive quorum count, ruling-party deputies left their seats, leaving the Chamber of Deputies without the 41 legislators needed to sit validly — and the vote on the resignation was never completed, ABC Color reported in its live coverage from inside Congress.
The collapse came hours after the day had seemed to be moving toward a negotiated exit. Peña announced his resignation in a video posted on social media at about 1 p.m., and Interior Minister Enrique Riera delivered the formal letter to Congress at 1:25 p.m. The Chamber of Deputies then voted unanimously, 78-0, to advance impeachment proceedings against him, while rejecting, 48-30, a separate impeachment motion against Alliana — clearing the vice president's path to succeed him. House Speaker Raúl Latorre had announced that Congress would accept the resignation at 5 p.m., swear in Alliana at 6 p.m. and elect a new vice president at 7 p.m., La Nación reported. None of the three steps happened.
A criminal case, and a president whose whereabouts were unknown
At 5 p.m., as Congress debated, Attorney General Emiliano Rolón Fernández opened a new criminal case against Peña over the Ueno Bank affair, under Resolution FGE No. 4474. The investigation grew out of a formal complaint filed by legislators in 2025 and expanded on Wednesday, and a special team of prosecutors — Christian Benítez, Elena Fiore Franco and Silvia González Vésster, coordinated by Nancy Salomón of the Specialized Unit for Economic Crimes and Anti-Corruption — will run it, ABC Color reported.
The criminal case is central to the fight over the resignation. If Congress accepts it, Peña keeps the immunity and special protections of a former president; if lawmakers remove him by trial instead, he does not. Protesters who gathered outside Congress on Thursday evening — a growing crowd in the Plaza de Armas of savers hurt by the Ueno collapse, retirees from the Social Security Institute and social groups — demanded the trial go ahead and Peña go to jail, rejecting the resignation as a pact for impunity that would hand him the immunity of a lifetime Senate seat, ABC Color reported.
At 5:39 p.m., presidential spokesman Guillermo Grance told reporters he did not know Peña's whereabouts, after the president sent his resignation by recorded message and entrusted Riera with delivering the document.
Two camps, and a trial tonight
Senator Celeste Amarilla said Núñez himself confirmed to her that, since the resignation process was not completed for lack of quorum in the lower house, the impeachment trial remains fully in force and must continue in the Senate. Senator Blanca Ovelar said she will formally request a new urgent joint session to define the situation of the Executive and avoid prolonged institutional paralysis.
Senator Gustavo Leite, a Colorado Party loyalist, said the trial continues but doubted its practical course: "El juicio político sigue, pero no creo que alguien que ya renunció aparezca a un juicio" — "The impeachment trial continues, but I don't think someone who has already resigned will show up at a trial." Earlier in the debate Leite had called the trial "a circus" and argued for accepting the resignation to end the uncertainty, warning that if it were rejected Peña "will remain president and will be able to defend himself" while in office.
Opposition senator Rafael Filizzola warned that the resignation changes little while the same political group holds power: "Se va Peña pero queda el mismo grupo" — "Peña goes, but the same group remains." Senator Ignacio Iramain went further during the session, declaring that "la Constitución ha muerto" — "the Constitution has died" — and pointing to a deep ethical and institutional crisis.
Peña, in his message on X, also addressed the criminal investigation, 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." And 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."
What was supposed to happen — and what is still pending
Alliana, 52, remains vice president. Under Article 234 of Paraguay's Constitution he is in line to complete the term through August 15, 2028, with no new popular election, because the vacancy falls in the final two years of the five-year term — but only once Congress accepts the resignation or the presidency is otherwise vacated. Congress must also choose a new vice president by absolute majority — at least 63 of 125 votes in joint session. The Colorado Party's proposal is Senator Antonio Barrios, a physician and former health minister under Horacio Cartes; a source told Última Hora that Barrios will be elected by a majority of the Colorado senators, Última Hora reported. That vote was scheduled for 7 p.m., but the collapse of the joint session left it pending as well.
A note on conflicting reports: an early analysis by the Americas Society/Council of the Americas described Peña's resignation as "quickly accepted by Congress in a Thursday vote," AS/COA reported. ABC Color's live reporting from inside the chamber, however, shows the joint session lost quorum before the vote on the resignation was completed, and the handover did not take place.
The crisis behind the fall
Peña resigned after the collapse of Ueno Bank, a digital lender that grew from a fintech launched in 2021 into a bank with about 3 million customers — in a country of about 6.5 million people — and roughly $850 million in public funds under its administration, Reuters reported. Central bank inspectors found risky lending to companies tied to the bank's owners, and once the books were corrected the bank's capital had fallen to less than half the legal minimum. The central bank seized Ueno on Tuesday, November 3 — see Paraguay President Santiago Peña Resigns After Ueno Bank Collapse Freezes Millions of Savers' Accounts.
Prosecutors have charged 27 bank officials and business associates, and eight senior Ueno executives have been detained, including founder Miguel Vázquez. Officials say they have begun moving accounts to other banks for about 280,000 people who banked only with Ueno, and around 7,000 employees of the bank and other Grupo Vázquez companies have been affected.
What comes next
The Senate sits as a trial court at 7:30 p.m. local time on Thursday night. Whether Peña appears to defend himself — as he promised — and how the Senate handles a trial against a president who has already resigned will set the course of the crisis. Also pending: a new joint session to settle the resignation, the election of a new vice president, the criminal investigation now under way, and the fate of millions of savers still unable to reach their money.
Read more on The Wire Post: Paraguay President Santiago Peña Resigns After Ueno Bank Collapse Freezes Millions of Savers' Accounts, Madrid Declaration Adopted at Ibero-American Summit as Argentina, Colombia, Costa Rica and Paraguay Break With Anti-Coercion Clause and Javier Milei Calls Socialism "Fascist" to Pedro Sánchez's Face at Ibero-American Summit in Madrid.
Sources: ABC Color live coverage, November 5, 2026; La Nación, November 5, 2026; Última Hora, November 5, 2026; Americas Society/Council of the Americas, November 5, 2026; Reuters, November 5, 2026. All times are local time in Asunción, Paraguay. Cover photo: Official portrait of Santiago Peña (public domain, via Wikimedia Commons), cropped to 1920×1080 with a small flag of Paraguay added in the top-right corner.