Who is Paraguay’s new president Pedro Alliana?

ASUNCION – Paraguay’s Vice-President Pedro Alliana became president after the country’s Senate impeached and removed Santiago Pena amid a banking crisis that triggered major political backlash.Pena lost the support of senior figures in the governing conservative Colorado Party after lawmakers blamed him for the collapse of digital lender ueno, which left millions of customers unable to access their accounts.Alliana, 52, will serve out the remainder of Pena’s term through August 2028.A longtime Colorado Party leader who had hoped to cap decades of political activism with a presidential run in 2028, Alliana achieved his goal two years early.He remained loyal to Pena until Nov 2, when he announced he was suspending his bid for the party’s December primary elections while the government addressed the country’s financial turmoil.“I want to be president of the Republic,” Alliana told reporters on Nov 2. “I think I have the capacity, I have the knowledge, I have the ideas.”In the same appearance, he said he was unwilling to take responsibility for mistakes made by others.The move was widely seen as a sign of growing distance from Pena as pressure mounted on the president over his handling of the crisis surrounding ueno.Pena had been a business partner in the group that owned the lender until March 2025.For seven years, Alliana served as president of the Colorado Party, which has governed Paraguay for most of the last eight decades, and climbed the political ranks alongside former president Horacio Cartes.“An Alliana presidency means policy continuity, dependence on Cartes and a weak mandate,” said Mariano Machado, Americas principal analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.“Pena’s exit removes the main advocate of Paraguay’s investment case. Expect orthodox macroeconomic policy to continue, but with greater pressure for spending on patronage ahead of the 2028 elections.”Alliana has touted the close relationship between Paraguay and the US, telling Infobae in an interview last August that the Trump administration’s Shield of the Americas regional security initiative will allow Paraguay to better combat organised crime.He has also firmly backed Paraguay’s support for Taiwan, one of only 12 countries that maintain formal diplomatic ties with the island, as well as Israel.The political crisis was triggered by questions over the supervision of major lender ueno and sparked street protests in Asuncion earlier this week. The fallout also forced the resignation of Paraguay’s central bank chief on Nov 3.Before becoming vice-president in 2023, Alliana spent a decade in the Chamber of Deputies representing the southern department of Neembucu, where he was born and where he also served as governor early in his political career. He is considered a reserved politician with deep ties to the Colorado Party establishment. REUTERS