The United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has sent his congratulations to the new President of Paraguay, Pedro Alliana, who assumed leadership of the State last Friday after the removal of his predecessor, Santiago Peña, through an “impeachment” in Congress as a result of the financial scandal involving Ueno Bank.
The contact took place this Sunday, as the spokesperson for the Department of State, Tommy Pigott, explained in a brief note, with the aim of “reaffirming the commitment of the United States to a solid and lasting partnership with the people of Paraguay”.
Alliana took office shortly after the legislature removed Peña from the Presidency in a political trial. The former head of government, who had submitted his resignation moments earlier, remains in pretrial detention due to the collapse of Ueno Bank, a financial entity linked to former business partners of Peña, which was taken over by the Central Bank after seeing its solvency fall below minimum thresholds, demonstrating its inability to guarantee deposits of millions of clients.
On the international front, the Trump Administration had forged a particularly close relationship with the Government of Peña, aligned with positions favorable to business interests.
Also, in March of this year, Peña signed in Washington the Forces Statute agreement, known as SOFA for its English acronym, which allows and regulates the temporary presence in Paraguay of civilian and military personnel from the Pentagon, as well as U.S. companies, to carry out activities linked to ship visits, training, and military maneuvers.
Last month, the Under Secretary of State, Christopher Landau, held a meeting with Peña in Asunción and emphasized that Paraguay occupies a key place in the region for U.S. diplomacy, in a scenario in which Trump is seeking to strengthen his ties with Latin America.