Santiago Peña

Santiago Peña Palacios (born 16 November 1978) is a Paraguayan politician and economist who is the 52nd and current president of Paraguay since 2023. In addition to his political career, Peña has served on leadership boards for the Central Bank of Paraguay and Banco Amambay. He has also taught economics at the Catholic University of Asunción, and has published research papers on monetary policy and finance.

Peña is a former member of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of Paraguay, and former minister of Finance of Paraguay. He previously stood as a candidate in the Colorado Party's presidential primary in 2018, where he lost to Mario Abdo Benítez, who went on to be elected president in the 2018 general election. He later won the party's nomination for president in the 2023 general election, in which he ultimately won. Peña was a member of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party between 1996 and 2016, when he joined the Colorado Party.

Early life
Peña was born on 16 November 1978 in Asunción, Paraguay to José María Peña Nieto (a Paraguayan) and Ana María Palacios (an Argentine from Buenos Aires). He has two brothers: Manuel and Francisco Peña. Through his father’s side he is a direct descendant of former dictator Dr. José Gaspar Rodríguez de Francia, considered to be Paraguay's founding father.

Education
Peña holds graduate degrees from Universidad Católica "Nuestra Señora de la Asunción" (2001) and the School of International and Public Affairs, Columbia University (2003).

Economist (1999–2014)
Peña joined the Industrial Development Fund as an analyst in 1999 and served as an economist at the Central Bank of Paraguay from 2000 to 2009.

He was appointed as one of the four directors of the Central Bank of Paraguay in 2012, leaving his job at the IMF.

Minister of Finance (2015–2017)
Horacio Cartes picked Peña to replace German Rojas as finance minister in 2015, following Rojas's resignation on personal grounds. As Peña took office, Cartes described him as a "bright young man" who would reinvigorate Paraguay's economy in the face of low global soy prices and a slow regional export market.

Joining the Colorado Party
Peña joined the Colorado Party on 29 October 2016, having previously been a member of the Authentic Radical Liberal Party (PLRA) from the age of 17. Peña's membership in the Colorado Party caused controversy, with reports that he only joined the party after Horacio Cartes announced his intention to dismiss members of his cabinet who were not party members. Peña released a statement stating he had joined the party due to its focus on developing Paraguay, and claimed to be the descendent of one of the party's founders, Jaime Peña. Following this, an electoral court annulled Peña's membership to the PLRA.

First presidential run and return to the private sector (2017–2022)
In 2017, Peña ran for the Colorado Party's presidential candidacy in the 2018 general election, ultimately losing out to Mario Abdo Benítez, with Abdo Benítez winning 564,811 votes (50.93%) to Peña's 480,114 (43.29%).

Following his defeat in the Colorado Party's internal elections in 2017, Peña was elected to the board of Banco Amambay in March 2018. The bank was part of the Cartes Group, which was owned by former President of Paraguay Horacio Cartes, for whom Peña had served as minister of finance.

Academia
In 2004, Peña taught as an adjunct professor at the Catholic University of Asunción, teaching financial theory. In 2005, he became a professor of economic policy at the same establishment. In addition, Peña has contributed to scholarship on monetary policy and finance. In 2017, he was invited by the Professor and current Ecuadorian ambassador to Chile Roberto Izurieta to participate as a visiting professor at the Graduate School of Political Management of the George Washington University, where Peña shared his experience on public administration in Paraguay. He also was the thesis advisor of Geovanny Vicente, CNN columnist and professor at Columbia University.

Presidency (2023–present)
In 2022, Peña ran successfully to stand as the Colorado Party's presidential candidate; he was widely seen as the candidate most closely aligned to former president Horacio Cartes, while his opponent, Arnoldo Wiens, was aligned with Abdo Benítez. Critics of Peña have said that if elected president, Horacio Cartes would be a grey eminence and that Peña would merely act as a mouthpiece for Cartes, who is sanctioned by the U.S as "significantly corrupt". Colorado Party politician Blanca Ovelar said Peña would end up acting as a "secretary" to Cartes if he was elected. Cartes and his supporters in Congress had previously attempted to pass a constitutional amendment to allow Cartes to run for re-election, sparking riots in the country.

Peña was elected President of Paraguay, after winning 43.9% of the vote in the 2023 general election in April, defeating his closest rival Efraín Alegre by a difference of 15 percentage points. He was congratulated by outgoing president Mario Abdo Benítez, and presidents Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Alberto Fernández of Argentina. Peña called for unity to address the economic challenges the country is currently facing. Peña was inaugurated on 15 August 2023. At 44 years old, he became Paraguay's youngest president since the restoration of democracy in 1989, surpassing Abdo Benítez, who was 46 when he assumed the role in 2018.

Political views
By the time of the 2023 election, Peña was considered a conservative politician who opposes the legalization of abortion and same-sex marriage. In May 2017, however, Peña had stated that he was in favor of same-sex marriage, while saying in regards of abortion that he was open for it to "be discussed in a sincere environment and without prejudice". He reversed position shortly afterwards following criticism from conservative sectors. During his 2023 campaign, he promised to create 500,000 jobs. He also ruled out raising taxes; this was criticized by The Guardian, who wrote that Paraguay is "having an underfunded state and the lowest tax burden in South America, which greatly benefits society's wealthiest."

On foreign policy, Peña pledged to maintain Paraguay's diplomatic relations with the Republic of China (Taiwan). As president, Paraguay restored diplomatic relations with Venezuela in November 2023; relations were strained since 2019. In May 2023, Peña announced that he intended to move the Paraguayan Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem after being sworn in as president; a move that was previously made by Horacio Cartes in 2018 but reversed by Mario Abdo Benítez later that year. Peña later expressed vocal support for Israel during the Israel–Hamas war.

In February 2023, Peña said in an interview with Folha de S.Paulo that the military dictatorship of Alfredo Stroessner had resulted in "more than 50 years of stability in Paraguay". Peña further asserted that Stroessner, who came to power as a result of a coup d'état, had come to a power as a result of a "political agreement". Peña's comments were criticised by opposition politicians and activists, and he was accused of trying to attract conservative and ultraconservative voters within the Colorado Party.