The ruling chamber of the Senate Chamber of Paraguay brought to a close on the night of Thursday the inaugural session of the impeachment trial against President Santiago Peña, after formally receiving the charging brief submitted by the delegation of deputies and notifying the head of state of the charges. In the same resolution, a new extraordinary session was convened for this Friday at 10:00 a.m. (local time), in which his defense arguments will be heard.
After the plenary session, the president of the Senate, the ruling party Basilio Núñez, confirmed to reporters the official opening of the procedure, in strict compliance with the rules of the Upper Chamber. "With the bicameral session having ended without a quorum, it was necessary to begin the impeachment trial. The prosecuting prosecutors have already filed the complaint and now the president is given notice so that he can prepare his defense," the legislative head explained, detailing that Peña may intervene in person or delegate his appearance to his lawyers.
At the same time, Núñez emphasized the importance of guaranteeing "due process" and of respecting the deadlines provided for in the internal regulations, structured in a sequence of five extraordinary sessions, in order to ensure the legal correctness of the prosecution. "We are respecting the times established in the regulations because we already have complaints before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights for procedures carried out in haste," the president of the Senate said, advancing that, after the filing of the defense this Friday, hearings will be held dedicated to the analysis of the evidence, the presentation of the arguments and, lastly, the roll-call vote of the senators.
The bicameral session was paralyzed due to lack of quorum
The parliamentary process was set in motion after the bicameral session convened to vote on the resignation that Peña had submitted hours earlier was blocked, as a result of the plenary walkout by deputies from the ruling party Partido Colorado.
The backdrop to the institutional crisis lies in the intervention of Ueno Bank, whose lack of liquidity has left the savings of thousands of depositors and pensioners immobilized. While inside Congress Núñez insisted that the legislative roadmap aims to enable measures in favor of the affected savers, around Plaza de Armas hundreds of people followed the session in real time.
Núñez also advanced that the intention of the Upper House is to "wrap up" the impeachment trial throughout the same Friday, provided that the procedural timelines make it possible.
If the removal of Peña ultimately moves forward, which requires the favorable vote of 30 of the 45 senators, the president of the Senate recalled that the line of succession established by the Constitution provides for the immediate assumption of the vice president of the Republic, Pedro Alliana, who will have to take the oath of office before Parliament in order to take the reins of the Executive Branch.