Sheinbaum Stresses Separating Economic and Political Power After Paraguayan President’s Banking Scandal

This article by Alma E. Muñoz and Arturo Sánchez originally appeared in the November 6, 2026 edition of La Jornada, Mexico’s premier left wing daily newspaper.

Mexico City. In response to the banking scandal in which the former president of Paraguay, Santiago Peña, finds himself, President Claudia Sheinbaum Pardo highlighted the importance of separating political power from economic power.

“Each one is separate,” she maintained, noting that she will wait to have more information before giving her opinion. The right-wing Santiago Peña resigned yesterday after the banking collapse in that country and an imminent impeachment trial against him.

“But it does seem that the now former president was involved in this bank, and that is the reason why he made the decision to resign,” President Sheinbaum affirmed.

Yesterday, Paraguayan President Peña announced that he was leaving the presidency after the intervention of the Ueno bank, a digital financial institution with which he had ties, which managed some 850 million dollars in public funds and whose closure left three million customers without access to their accounts.

However, that country’s Congress rejected the resignation and will put him on trial.