After three years as vice president, it took just three days of crisis to catapult Pedro Alliana to Paraguay’s presidency—while the man he replaced was placed under house arrest over the same scandal.
The former national basketball player, businessman, and ruling-party insider was rapidly sworn in on Friday, minutes after lawmakers impeached and removed Santiago Peña. Paraguayan authorities immediately placed the ousted president under house arrest at his residence in Asunción.
Prosecutor Silvia Margarita González Vester said Peña will remain there and will be questioned on Saturday over alleged crimes of breach of trust, influence peddling, and misappropriation of funds tied to the banking collapse that brought down his government.
Earlier in the week, Ueno Bank suddenly collapsed, freezing the savings of half of Paraguay’s adult population. On being sworn in, Alliana, 52, pledged to put that right in the time remaining before the presidential term ends in August 2028. He now leads the country at a moment of acute political and financial turmoil.
Born on February 19, 1974, in the riverside city of Pilar, Alliana emerged as a national political figure with the backing of former president Horacio Cartes—still one of Paraguay’s most influential operators and leader of the ruling Colorado Party. Before entering politics, he built a career as a businessman and earned recognition as a talented basketball player, making Paraguay’s national team in 1991.
His life has also been marked by personal hardship. In 2003, his brother Rodolfo “Pili” Alliana, 24, was kidnapped and murdered; a court found the abduction was intended to fund a cigarette-smuggling operation in the landlocked nation. In 2018, Alliana was diagnosed with leukemia and treated in Brazil. He announced the following year that he had overcome the illness, though he underwent chemotherapy again in 2021.
Politics was present from an early age—both his parents served as local councilors—yet his first electoral bid ended in defeat in 2006 when he unsuccessfully sought the mayoralty of his hometown at age 32. Two years later he was elected governor of the southern department of Ñeembucú. He then served in the Chamber of Deputies from 2013 to 2023, presided over the lower house, and later led the Colorado Party.
His rise accelerated through a faction founded by Cartes. In 2021, Alliana expected to run for the Senate, but Cartes informed him he would instead become Peña’s running mate. Peña publicly praised him at the time, saying Alliana could become “the best vice president in Paraguay’s history.” Married to congresswoman Fabiana Souto and the father of four, Alliana has faced criticism over the number of relatives employed in public administration, including his eldest daughter, Montserrat Alliana. Even so, observers long viewed him as one of the figures best positioned to inherit leadership of the ruling party—just not this quickly.
A year after becoming vice president, Alliana publicly acknowledged his ambition for the highest office. In 2025, Cartes openly encouraged those aspirations, telling supporters at a party event: “Pedro, you are blessed,” and urging them to back him as the “next president of the Republic.” Relations later cooled; after Cartes withdrew support for Alliana’s presidential ambitions, Alliana declared on October 26 that loyalty should not be confused with “blind obedience.”
His fortunes changed again when lawmakers impeached Peña over the banking crisis but rejected proceedings against Alliana, shelving the case against the vice president and clearing the path for his rapid elevation.