The Paraguayan Prosecutor’s Office requested this Saturday that preventive detention be ordered against former president Santiago Peña, whom it formally charged with alleged breach of trust and administration for personal gain during his appearance in the investigation into the closure of Ueno bank, an entity to which the former president has been linked and whose case led to his dismissal.
[Paraguayan Senate Summons President Santiago Peña to Face Impeachment: Paraguay’s Prosecutor’s Office Requests Pre-Trial Detention Against Peña](https://www.telesurenglish.net/paraguays-prosecutors-office-requests-pre-trial-detention-against-pena/)
Peña was arrested on Friday shortly after being found guilty in an impeachment trial for “poor performance of duties” after the dissolution due to insolvency problems of Ueno, a bank with 2.94 million clients, including important state institutions whose funds were frozen.
After the request from the Public Ministry, a judge must determine, in a hearing to impose measures, whether to accept the prosecutors’ request.
According to the indictment, the former president is accused of alleged breach of trust as an instigator and of administration for personal gain as an author.
The document indicates that the former president “would have intervened in circumstances related to the placement, renewal and permanence of significant sums of money from public and social security entities” in Ueno bank, an entity with whose business group Peña “would have maintained a previous economic and corporate relationship.”
Fiscalía imputó a Santiago Peña y Carlos Carvallo y solicitó prisión preventiva y medidas patrimonialeshttps://t.co/0iyHlQb10u pic.twitter.com/oVYMMLEtgx
— Fiscalía Paraguay (@MinPublicoPy) November 7, 2026
Peña was a shareholder of Ueno Holding, a conglomerate of the Vásquez Group that owned, among other companies, Ueno bank. In March 2025, he sold that stake, detailed the accusation of the deputies who promoted the impeachment trial against him.
Ueno bank, adds the Prosecutor’s Office document, would have received these public funds “while developing credit operations with companies allegedly linked to its economic group,” in which “observations and irregularities were identified by the supervisory bodies of the Central Bank.”
The Public Ministry also charged and requested preventive detention against the former president of the Central Bank of Paraguay (BCP) Carlos Carvallo, for alleged breach of trust, immediate production of false public documents and administration for personal gain, as an author.
Carvallo appeared before the authorities on Friday night and was arrested.
The former official presided over Financiera Ueno, from which Ueno bank was born, before assuming in 2023 the leadership of the issuing entity, whose board of directors authorized “83 days after” his appointment the creation of the defunct banking entity, explained the deputies in their accusation.
During Peña’s administration, the Social Security Institute (IPS), one of the country’s main pension funds, invested some 355 million dollars in Ueno, which also managed the accounts of some 32,000 retirees.
For this case, the Prosecutor’s Office has also charged 27 people, including Miguel Vásquez, one of the founders of Ueno bank, who this Friday was transferred along with five other directors to prisons for defendants.
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