Paraguay's lower house backs Peña impeachment with 78 votes
The vote came hours after the president submitted his resignation. The Senate now decides whether to try him or accept it.
Paraguay's Chamber of Deputies voted 78 in favor on Thursday to approve impeachment proceedings against President Santiago Peña. The 35 lawmakers who had filed the accusation called the extraordinary session. As the vote went on, Peña submitted his resignation, which he announced in a video.
The accusation centers on Ueno Bank, the digital lender the central bank moved to wind down over insolvency. Deputies accuse Peña of a conflict of interest over his stake in Ueno Holding and of putting Carlos Carvallo, a former president of the Ueno finance company, in charge of the central bank. They also charge that he pushed changes to the conflict-of-interest law and let funds from IPS, the social security institute, pile into Ueno Bank beyond legal limits. It is a political accusation, not a conviction.
The chamber picked eight deputies to argue the case before the Senate. The same day, it rejected impeachment of Vice President Pedro Alliana.
The governing Colorado Party backed the proceeding against Peña. Its president, Horacio Cartes, said: "We will not stand on the side of the plundering of public funds."
The Senate now sits as judge, under Article 225 of the Constitution. Convicting Peña takes two-thirds, or 30 of its 45 members. Whether it can try him now that he has resigned, or simply accepts the resignation, is an open question.
His future turns on that. If the Senate accepts the resignation, Peña would take a lifetime Senate seat as a former president, which the Constitution denies to anyone convicted in an impeachment. Alliana would take office and serve until August 2028, when the term ends.
