Judge orders Peña detained: ex-president stays under presidential guard over "sensitive information"

Guarantees judge Humberto Otazú ordered former Paraguayan president Santiago Peña held in pre-trial detention on the evening of November 7, a day after the Senate removed him over the collapse of Ueno bank, Europa Press and ABC Color report. "We understand there must be a guarantee that he remains in the country, and that is why the court decided to order his pre-trial detention," Otazú told Paraguayan media.

The judge ruled that Peña will remain under the regime of the Presidential Escort Regiment, where he was moved before dawn, because of the sensitive information he handled as head of state. "Everything he may have known as president about financial information and organised crime is taken into account," Otazú said. Peña declined to speak at the hearing, and the court is still considering a request to freeze his assets.

The charges

Prosecutors charge Peña with breach of trust, as instigator, and self-serving administration, as perpetrator. According to the charges, as president he took part in decisions to place, renew and keep public and pension funds at Ueno, with whose group he had ties; he held a stake in Ueno Holding and met the leadership of the Social Security Institute (IPS) on investments in the bank's instruments. According to ABC Color, the offences together carry up to 15 years in prison.

Former central bank governor Carlos Carvallo is charged with breach of trust, self-serving administration and producing false public documents. Prosecutors say that on October 7 he sent the Senate a note from which he "deliberately removed" technical reports and a warning on the bank's solvency. Detention was also requested for him; no ruling on Carvallo had been published at the time of writing.

Why detention

Prosecutors Christian Benítez, Silvia González Vester, Elena Fiore and Ruth Benítez cited a flight risk: Peña's brother Francisco, according to the charges, holds shares in the group's parent company, U Holding in Luxembourg, which would give Peña "logistics, residences and accounts outside national jurisdiction". They also allege that in June 2025 he personally received about $200,000 in cash at the Mburuvicha Róga presidential residence.

According to prosecutors, public and pension funds at Ueno amounted in September 2026 to about 3.6 trillion guaraníes and $233.4 million. The bank has 2.94 million clients in a country of 6.1 million; the central bank took control of it on Tuesday, November 3.