Democratic socialist Nithya Raman ousts embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass

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Democratic socialist Nithya Raman ousts embattled Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass

2026-11-06 06:55 Last Updated At：07:00

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Nithya Raman, a little-known Los Angeles City Council member backed by the Democratic Socialists of America, has defeated Mayor Karen Bass, an upset that will alter the trajectory of the nation’s second-largest city.

The India-born Raman's upstart campaign marked a generational shift at City Hall as voters followed the lead of New York, where democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was elected last year. Raman, though, never attracted the same level of national attention and stressed her willingness to break with the progressive party at times during the campaign.

When she takes office next month, Raman will join the vanguard of democratic socialists in municipal government. In addition to Mamdani, Janeese Lewis George was elected Tuesday as mayor of Washington, D.C., and Katie Wilson is mayor in Seattle.

Asked about the success of democratic socialists in mayoral contests, President Donald Trump said “we’ll see what happens” but warned the impact of the changes they make might be irreversible.

“There’ll be a point at which if people are unhappy, they’ll be changed,” Trump said in the Oval Office. “But unfortunately, usually that happens so late that you’ll never be able to bring back a city or a country or a state. You know — when it goes too far.”

Raman's entry into the race marked a stunning change of heart after she had initially endorsed Bass, once her ally. She said the city had reached a “breaking point” and announced her own candidacy just hours before the filing deadline, setting in motion a meteoric rise that would lead her to the mayorality.

In a video with the downtown skyline behind her, Raman paid tribute to Bass and thanked her volunteers. She promised to “build housing that people can afford, parks for our children to play in, a transit system that can get people where they need to go, a city that is safe for its working people and its families, and a city government that is actually capable of delivering on its promises.”

Bass said in a statement that she called Raman to congratulate her on her victory.

“While this is not the outcome we hoped for, the people of Los Angeles have spoken,” Bass said. “I have committed to ensuring a smooth and seamless transition. Moving this city forward is what Los Angeles needs from all of us.”

Bass becomes the first Los Angeles mayor in two decades to lose a bid for reelection. Her first term was undone by the deadly Palisades Fire, which ignited when she was out of the country and caught the fire department unprepared. The devastation left many voters with the unshakeable feeling that Bass should be held to account, and she never recovered.

As votes were being counted earlier this week, Raman delivered an election night speech Tuesday that marked a campaign coda, summing up voters’ frustration with a city that seemed to be adrift, and her vision for the future.

“For too long our broken and unjust status quo has convinced Angelenos that this is the best that we can do,” she said. “LA stopped being a place where we could build things, where we could open things, where we could film things, where we could create things.”

She said she would restore “that ambitious Los Angeles, that joyful Los Angeles, that creative Los Angeles, that entrepreneurial Los Angeles."

Raman's rise came in a year that saw Democratic divisions across the country, with insurgent left-wing candidates challenging establishment rivals.

Raman is promising to oust the police chief, whom she views as too accommodating with federal immigration authorities. She also wants to improve basic services that have deteriorated for years and left neighborhoods with dirty, pothole-ridden streets, buckled sidewalks and broken streetlights.

Raman called Bass’ efforts to reduce homelessness ineffective. She's promising a new approach on the crisis that would expand medical teams for people who live in encampments and on the streets in an effort to build trust and eventually bring them indoors. Raman also wants to provide more housing to move people out of hotels rented by the city for those who are homeless.

She said her plans could reduce the number of people sleeping in tents and encampments by at least half by 2028, when the city will host the Olympic Games. However, the problem has long proved intractable, despite billions spent in the region.

Raman, 45, was the face of change in a year when voters were restless over long-running problems that persisted under the 73-year-old Bass. A Berkeley IGS/LA Times poll conducted from Oct. 19 to 25 found that about 4 in 10 likely voters said reducing the number of homeless encampments should be a top priority for the next mayor to address, while about 3 in 10 said that about ensuring public safety or building more affordable housing.

She was able to overcome criticism from Bass that she was “not ready for primetime” and too inexperienced to run a city with 3.8 million people, and she capitalized on anxiety over the future.

“Our city is in crisis,” she said in one ad. The ad showed a lectern with no one behind it at the site of a massive warehouse fire from last summer, the homeless epicenter of Skid Row and shuttered malls and storefronts. “Where is our mayor?” Raman asked.

Bass argued that she made enough progress to merit a second four-year term, and she branded Raman’s views on policing and homelessness as “extreme.”

Raman's victory came despite limited backing from the Democratic establishment. Bass had support from Gov. Gavin Newsom, former Vice President Kamala Harris and former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, along with nearly every member of the City Council. Bass served in the state Legislature and Congress before becoming mayor in 2022 and was under consideration to be former President Joe Biden’s running mate in 2020.

In an important signal to the business community, billionaire developer Rick Caruso said he was voting for Bass, but stopped short of formally endorsing the candidate he lost to in the 2022 mayoral race.

Raman, an urban planner, picked up notable support from advocacy and political groups, including Our Revolution, which was founded by Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders, and the Sierra Club. But she was thin on endorsements from prominent local politicians.

She landed a widely publicized private meeting with former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was not involved in the race, that hinted at her efforts to broaden her circle. Expanding her network of allies could be crucial as she begins governing a city that's home to a struggling entertainment industry, a major port, world-class universities and research institutions and serves as a major tourist destination.

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Associated Press writer Moriah Balingit in Washington contributed.

Paraguay prosecutor will seek charges against embattled President Peña following bank collapse

ASUNCIÓN, Paraguay (AP) — Paraguayan President Santiago Peña is under criminal investigation following the collapse of a major digital bank, prosecutors announced, hours after the South American leader’s resignation and impeachment Thursday.

The crisis at Ueno Bank turned Peña’s long-ruling Colorado Party against him, a stunning reversal for the former International Monetary Fund economist who had enjoyed the backing of the country's most powerful politicians and was welcomed in Washington just weeks ago as a key ally of the Trump administration.

Minutes after Peña’s announcement, the lower house voted 78-0 to impeach him, sending the charges to the Senate. Congressional leaders will continue voting Friday on whether to accept Peña's resignation, which would clear the way for Vice President Pedro Alliana to be sworn in without waiting for a Senate trial.

Opposition senators are continuing to demand that Peña be removed from office, arguing that allowing him to resign would preserve his eligibility to become a senator for life, with legal protections that could prevent his prosecution, should Paraguay’s Attorney General Emiliano Rolón Fernández opt to file charges.

Rolón has ordered three criminal investigations into the Ueno Bank crisis, including allegations involving Peña and other current and former government officials, the prosecutor’s office said Thursday.

The investigations will examine authorities’ oversight of the bank, their handling of its failure and the placement of public funds in the lender.

Peña said he would cooperate with investigators.

“Whatever the outcome of this process, I will act with responsibility and respect for the Constitution,” he said on X.

Earlier Thursday, Peña said in a video posted to X that he was stepping down in the interest of “the stability of our country, social peace and the need to preserve our democratic institutions.”

Even Peña’s mentor, Colorado Party leader and former President Horacio Cartes, backed impeachment, saying the party would not side with “the plundering of public and private funds and pensioners’ money.” The United States Treasury sanctioned Cartes in 2023 over bribery allegations, but the Trump administration lifted the sanctions last year.

Peña, who until last year held a stake in a company linked to Ueno, expressed contrition. But he stopped short of accepting responsibility for the turmoil, which has left millions of depositors, retirees and workers scrambling to recoup their frozen savings and unpaid wages.

“I want to apologize to the people if I have failed them at any point,” he said. “It was never my intention to betray the trust they placed in me."

Ueno Bank, which exploded from an obscure finance company to a household name in less than five years, claimed more than 60% of Paraguay’s adults as customers. Many Paraguayans are left asking how a bank linked to the president could grow so rapidly in size and importance despite repeated warnings about its lending practices.

The answer lies in the uncomfortable proximity of Peña’s Colorado Party to the country’s regulators and business elite, a weakness that has endured even as steady economic management and rapid growth recently earned Paraguay coveted investment-grade credit ratings.

“Santiago Peña and the Colorado Party have stolen all our savings,” said Luis Pineda, one of the protesters marching to Congress on Wednesday. “We are fed up with 70 years of plunder.”

Soon after winning its banking license in 2023, Ueno seemed to be everywhere in Paraguay. The digital lender, a rebranded version of a decades-old finance company, lured customers with generous cash-back offers on groceries as it grew to more than 70 locations, sponsored Paraguay's national soccer team and plastered its name on the country's main stadium.

Government money poured into Ueno’s coffers under Peña. He also appointed Carlos Carvallo, president of Financiera Ueno, the predecessor to Ueno Bank, to run the central bank, the agency charged with supervising the digital lender.

As of last month, Ueno reported holding roughly $800 million in public deposits, about a quarter of its total, including money from the state pension and health fund and the operators of Paraguay’s giant hydroelectric dams.

But worries were escalating inside the central bank. In June, its inspectors found a pattern of risky lending to insiders, reported ABC Color, a leading Paraguayan newspaper. Ueno had extended large sums to companies tied to its owners, beyond what the law allows and without enough collateral to cover the debts if they went bad.

As recently as last month, Peña defended Ueno and the central bank’s oversight, dismissing the concerns as a smear campaign that was spooking the public.

But on Monday, it all came crashing down. Regulators investigating Ueno’s loans to companies linked to its owners found poorly documented lending, the central bank said, as well as expenses the bank had wrongly counted as assets.

Once the books were corrected, Ueno’s capital, the cushion banks must keep to absorb losses, fell to less than half the legal minimum. The central bank announced the lender’s seizure Tuesday, beginning a process to transfer deposits and recoverable assets to other banks before liquidating what remained.

Ueno’s app, cards and transfers went dark and its branches locked their doors, leaving desperate depositors lined up outside. On Wednesday, a rush to open new accounts elsewhere crashed other banks’ mobile apps, fueling public panic.

Officials have appealed for calm. Under a law rushed through Congress on Wednesday, a state guarantee fund must repay stranded depositors within five business days, starting Thursday with small accounts of up to about $1,600. The fund insures up to about $36,000 per customer, which the central bank says will cover the full balances of an estimated 97% of clients.

On Thursday, a judge ordered six Ueno executives, including founder Miguel Vázquez and bank President Juan Manuel Gustale, jailed pending trial and two others placed under house arrest. Prosecutors have charged 27 bank officials and associates with breach of trust and attempted fraud.

Gustale’s lawyer pushed back on the charges, arguing that senior executives had relied on staff for lending decisions. “The president or board is not responsible for deciding who receives a particular loan,” José Fernández Zacur told local media.

Still in their Ueno uniforms, young employees burned their credit cards and cursed Peña outside the Labor Ministry on Thursday, demanding severance and unpaid wages. Peña’s resignation did little to calm them.

“Let the impeachment process take place and let him lose his immunity,” said Adolfo Villalba, one of the protesters on Thursday.

The Labor Ministry estimates the collapse has affected about 7,000 direct and indirect jobs at the bank and its related businesses.

Many saw Ueno’s collapse as a case study in official corruption. Only Venezuela ranks worse in South America on Transparency International’s latest index of perceived corruption.

“This is yet another assault on honest, hard-working citizens, people whose small savings are the fruit of years of labor,” said Belarmino Balbuena, one of thousands who marched on Congress in the capital, Asunción, on Wednesday.

Jorge Sáenz contributed to this story. DeBre reported from Buenos Aires, Argentina.