Former Paraguayan president Peña's mansion raided: hidden vault behind false wall discovered
Police found a vault with Israeli security system at the residence of the ousted leader. Peña remains in preventive detention in connection with the Ueno Bank case.
Peña's mansion raided in San Bernardino: vault with iris reader found
A fiscal and police contingent entered the mansion of former Paraguayan president Santiago Peña on Sunday, located in the San Bernardino district, Cordillera department, as part of investigations into the so-called "Ueno Bank case". According to t13.cl, the operation is being carried out in relation to alleged crimes of breach of trust and other infractions linked to the case.
Inside the residence, according to preliminary reports cited by local media ABC, a vault concealed behind a false wall is said to have been found. The structure reportedly features an "Israeli security system" and iris reader, according to details provided by that source.
The mansion, meanwhile, is said to have begun construction just a few months after Peña took office as president of the country. Its cost is estimated at approximately 7.7 billion guaraníes — more than 1.3 billion Chilean pesos — and, according to the same media outlet, it was financed with loans from Ueno Bank, an entity that subsequently closed due to deterioration in its solvency ratios.
Paraguayan justice decreed preventive detention for the former president on Saturday, 7 November, and he remains confined in the Presidential Escort Regiment, a military facility where he is detained. The measure aims to ensure that Peña submits to judicial proceedings and prevent a possible flight from the country.
"What we do understand and consider prudent is that this citizen must be under preventive detention to guarantee his submission to these proceedings. So that there is no flight, fundamentally," said representatives of Paraguayan justice.
Among the antecedents supporting the decision, judges considered that the former leader may have handled sensitive information during his administration, including financial data and information linked to organised crime.
Source: Google News CL — Santiago