00:00Precisely to go deeper into the meaning of what has happened today in Paraguay, we have
00:04with us a special guest, Yvonne Tellez, international law expert.
00:09Hello Yvonne, welcome to From the South and thank you very much for your time here with
00:13us.
00:15Hello Alejandra.
00:18Yvonne, we've seen Santiago Peña who resigned from office in the midst of a debate in Congress
00:25that was willing to perform an impeachment on him or vote on it.
00:29How can, what can we expect in the coming hours?
00:33Can Congress still pursue accountability for the president?
00:39Okay, the question here is if the resignation and the impeachment process, especially regarding
00:48his possible responsibilities in this financial crisis.
00:55Let's see what happened in the last hours.
00:59The lower house voted to bring the impeachment charges after Peña announced his resignation.
01:06I mean, this came afterwards.
01:10Under the Paraguayans' constitution, the Congress decides whether to accept it or, and the Senate
01:19has the power to remove a president through this impeachment.
01:23So this distinction matters because a former president found guilty in an impeachment process or trial, impeachment
01:36trial, loses this eligibility for the lifetime Senate seat, right?
01:41Once the presidency is formally vacant, then the vice president is the next in the line and
01:49should serve until the end of the term.
01:52So, in the end, this will mean that the Colorado Party will still be in power.
01:59But it depends on what the Congress decides regarding the resignation.
02:06As far as we know, there's a huge majority that have backed the idea of the impeachment.
02:13Then that means that definitely the resignation could not be accepted under the constitution terms.
02:21And probably that will be, I think, the best outcome or the best possible outcome within a crisis,
02:30because that will show at least some kind of stronger institutional system in the way that it does not withhold
02:43or can favor some kind of impunity at least.
02:50At least this leaves the road for the former president Pena to show some accountability regarding his financial
03:03or the other things that can involve him, all the issues, legal issues that could be
03:09proof of some of wars or wrongdoing within this financial crisis.
03:18Also, today, during the debate, many lawmakers were pointing at Pena as president that was trying to
03:27be a resigned president rather than an impeached president, that he was trying as well to stay out of
03:34this conflict clean and to be immune.
03:37From your point of view, is this what he's trying to do?
03:43Why matters this impeachment process?
03:46Why is it important mostly for the people of Paraguay?
03:51Well, the first thing here is that I think a big question is how or why a banking crisis such
04:02as this one could bring down a president.
04:05So, there are big questions here in the back, and the government and Pena will have to answer this.
04:16The first one is who decided to place so much public money in Bueno Bank?
04:22And that goes under his responsibility and that calls for accountability.
04:29The other one would be how did the bank keep growing so fast despite the warnings about its lending?
04:39So, we know that the head of the central bank was formerly, sorry, was before or had run or was
04:51involved in the company that became Bueno.
04:56So, and Pena, former business ties added to this to the same scrutiny.
05:04So, I think that those links explain very well the political pressure.
05:09So, in this sense, I think that coming to an impeachment and calling an impeachment will mean at least that
05:17there is, as I said before, accountability and that former President Pena would face the responsibility regarding his decisions because
05:29this happened under his government.
05:31And that's the reason why a banking crisis that could be just a private financial thing could make a president
05:41to resign or at least to step aside under this.
05:45So, I think this, let's hope that the Congress doesn't accept his resignation and that he can come to this
05:54impeachment trial and provide, well, of course, the due process.
06:00It's always a principle that has to be respected, that this doesn't mean that we're implying that he's completely responsible
06:08for everything, but this means when you have the, I mean, when the people have the power to use the
06:15democratic tools, to use the judicial tools efficiently and with impartiality, that means that at least the state holds kind
06:25of an institutional framework that could bring confidence
06:28within the people within the people.
06:30And the other big thing here is that no one could be just hold non-accountable for the, what he's,
06:41what the person is responsible for.
06:43So, this brings a big message to people of how the state is willing to at least try to sustain
06:53main principles of democracy and one of them being, of course, accountability.
07:00Also, we are seeing images of people taken to the streets as, as the news was unleashed of the first
07:09of the, of the stepping out of the president and about the impeachment.
07:13What are the main goals of the people at this hour? What do you think there's so much expectations on,
07:19on what is going to happen today?
07:22Well, I think that, of course, public responses, massive responses from the people in Paraguay are always expected. And such
07:37crisis as this one, we will expect people to be, of course, very angry against all these measures.
07:47Because in the end, what happens here is that, and what we're used to, is that probably the main responsible
07:55people, groups for this kind of, this kind of financial crisis usually come up kind of clean.
08:05And this is one thing, I mean, this is one thing, I mean, the sense of impunity. The other thing
08:11is the fact that people are losing their money because they don't know and there comes this big, dark cloud
08:20of uncertainty where, whether people do not know if they will have, could have access to their, to their funds,
08:30will regain the, the money that they, at least,
08:35for now, for now seems lost. So this is a big issue because it deals with, first, the, the public
08:43and the general confidence in the system, one of, one of it being one of the main issues.
08:50And the other one, of course, goes into the daily life of people who are working and who are trusting
08:58a financial system. So when a financial system breaks such as this one, this will definitely derive in very big
09:08manifestations and public anger towards the system.
09:14So I think one of the best or probable most intelligent measures from the state, I'm not talking about just
09:22the government, but the state and the institutions of the state should be to show the people that there is
09:28a will, at least, to not favor any impunity and take the measures that this situation demands.
09:38Yvonne, thank you very much for your time and also helping us understand the political turmoil that is shaking at
09:44this hour Paraguay. So thank you very much for your time.
09:48Always happy to be here. Thank you.
09:49Now we are going to move on to all the topics because on Thursday, November 5th, Grenadians are heading to
09:56the polls to vote in a general election called early by incumbent Prime Minister Deacon Mitchell.
10:02Precisely, Mitchell called to dissolve Parliament on October 2nd, setting November 5th as the date for the electoral battle almost
10:10a year ahead.
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