Santiago Peña, Paraguay’s ousted president, was ordered held in pretrial detention after he was charged over his alleged role in a banking scandal that left nearly half the country unable to access savings, Al Jazeera reported. The arrest order came shortly after his removal from office, a change since the paper’s November 7 coverage of regulators seizing Ueno Bank and freezing nearly 3 million customers’ access to savings. [E1][E4][E5]
Al Jazeera reported that the scandal centres on Peña’s ties to Ueno, a digital bank that grew rapidly during his presidency, partly through an injection of more than $800m in public funds. [E2]
Ueno’s collapse led to days of protests across Paraguay, with thousands demanding access to their savings, Al Jazeera reported; some demonstrations turned violent. [E3]