Paraguay's Senate on Friday rejected President Santiago Pena's bid to delay his impeachment trial over a banking scandal that has seen millions of people temporarily lose access to their deposits.
Senate President Basilio Nunez said Pena's bid for a three-day delay to prepare his defense "did not receive the necessary votes, so the extension is rejected."
He said Pena would be "notified and summoned" for the impeachment proceedings due to start Friday.
The crisis erupted on Tuesday, when the Central Bank took control of Ueno Bank over fears for its solvency and froze the accounts of around three million customers, nearly half the country's population.
Pena, who previously owned a stake in a group that controlled the bank, tendered his resignation on Thursday, but Congress put his resignation on hold while the impeachment process moved forward.
Writing on X, the 47-year-old president, an economist by training, said earlier Friday he had asked for a 72-hour extension to prepare his defense.
He said that he had been served with a 15-page indictment with around 300 pages of appendices only the evening before.
"This is not due process," he added hours before the Senate was due to hold the impeachment hearing.
The Central Bank's intervention in Ueno on Tuesday came as a shock in the South American country, which has a reputation for being economically and politically stable.
The Central Bank said that Ueno had breached minimum solvency requirements.
Pena, who came to power in 2023, owned shares in Grupo Vasquez, which has majority control of Ueno, until 2025 when he sold them.
The opposition accuses him of conflict of interest, which he denies.
The Attorney General's Office said it is investigating Pena for "acts related to the supervision and resolution of Ueno Bank S.A. and the placement of public funds in said entity."
In an address to the nation on Thursday, the right-wing leader said: "I want to apologize to the people if at any point I failed."
"It was never my intention to betray the trust you placed in me," he added.
The opposition wants to impeach Pena, rather than let him resign.
If he resigns, he will automatically become a senator for life and enjoy immunity from prosecution, constitutional experts and lawmakers explained AFP.
In dramatic scenes in Congress on Thursday, MPs from Pena's conservative Colorado Party joined ranks with the opposition in voting to launch impeachment proceedings.
Thousands of people took to the streets for a third consecutive night on Thursday in the capital Asuncion and other cities to demand the return of their money.
They also demanded Pena's removal from office and, for some, his imprisonment.
"Santiago Pena has hurt so many Paraguayans, so many families, business owners and small business people, including my own son, who had savings in Ueno Bank," Cynthia Farina told AFP at a protest in Asuncion.
Ueno began out as a small fintech company with a digital-first model that attracted many low-income customers.
It rapidly grew into a major bank that handled state pensions and the accounts of several state entities.
Central Bank president Carlos Carvallo, who previously headed Ueno, resigned over the scandal and arrest warrants have been issued for eight Ueno executives.
The Central Bank has vowed to protect the bank's depositors and assured that the bank's woes do not "represent the broader state of the Paraguayan financial system."
str-mry/mel/cb/msp
