MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“They all must go”: Peña’s removal fails to calm anger on Paraguay’s streets

Many protesters, mostly young people, turned their anger on the entire Colorado Party government and kept vigil in the city centre with flags, placards and drums

Thousands of Paraguayans celebrated in Asunción on Friday as the Senate removed President Santiago Peña from office, but the joy turned almost immediately to anger among those who wanted a complete change of government. “Out with them all,” hundreds of protesters chanted outside Congress as Vice President Pedro Alliana was sworn in as the new head of state.

Celebrations erupted at the news that Peña, 47, was leaving office without immunity and, hours later, was placed under house arrest accused of breach of trust over the collapse of Ueno Bank, which had more than 2.9 million customers in a country of 6.1 million people. But many protesters, mostly young people, turned their anger on the entire Colorado Party government and kept vigil in the city centre with flags, placards and drums. “If the same people stay, there is no change”, “We want jail” and “Where is the money?” read the signs.

“The people are staying here until they all go,” Celicia Lugo told the EFE news agency, adding that Peña and Alliana “are the same”. “The incoming government is more of the same, because only Peña will be gone, the rest will stay,” said Milda Cuevas, who celebrated the removal and demanded that the former president “be tried” and “go to prison”. For Andrea Gutiérrez, Ueno “was just one example” of what she sees as the ongoing plundering of citizens.

The crisis erupted on Tuesday, when the Central Bank took over Ueno Bank, which had received large amounts of public funds during Peña’s term, and froze its deposits. Those affected include some 32,000 pensioners of the Social Security Institute, according to EFE.

In an attempt to contain the anger, Alliana announced after being sworn in that those affected by the bank’s closure “will be fully compensated”, without saying how. The legal deposit guarantee covers up to 75 minimum wages, about 228 million guaraníes per depositor.