Paraguay just impeached its president over a bank collapse

Paraguay's president just resigned.

And Congress impeached him anyway, less than an hour later.

So let's break this down.

Santiago Peña announced his resignation in a video statement about 10 hours ago. He said he was doing it to protect the country's stability and democratic institutions.

Enrique Riera, Paraguay's Interior Minister, handed the resignation to Congress at around 1.30pm local time.

Minutes later, the Chamber of Deputies voted 78-0 to impeach him anyway.

Here's the twist. A joint session of Congress was supposed to formally accept or reject that resignation. It got suspended for lack of quorum. So right now, Peña is technically still president.

Congress is set to keep voting on it today.

And on top of the impeachment, the Senate has already opened a trial against him. A defence session is set for today. To remove him for good, 30 of the Senate's 45 members have to vote yes.

On top of all that, prosecutors have opened a criminal investigation. CNN reports the Attorney General, Emiliano Rolón Fernández, has opened three separate cases. Other outlets haven't confirmed that detail by name, but MercoPress does confirm an expanded criminal complaint names Peña, the economy minister and the former Central Bank chief.

So what actually caused all this?

A bank collapsed. Ueno Bank.

Public bank, three million customers, give or take. CNN says 2.9 million. In a country of around six million people.

Paraguay's Central Bank seized it three days ago. Why? Its solvency ratio had fallen below 50 per cent of the legal minimum.

Ueno was holding close to $850 million in public funds, according to Al Jazeera and NBC. Two other outlets, OPB and Euronews, say around $800 million in public deposits specifically, about a quarter of its total, as of last month. Nobody has reconciled those two figures.

Eight senior executives got arrested. Arrest warrants went out three days ago. The founder, Miguel Vázquez. The bank's president, Juan Manuel Gustale. And prosecutors have also charged 27 more bank officials and business associates, for things like breach of trust and attempted fraud.

Thousands of people have been protesting for three days straight. Trying to get back savings. Wages. Pensions. All frozen inside the bank.

Now here's why Peña himself is in trouble.