The police and prosecutors in Peru carried out a shock raid on the house of President Dina Boluarte and the presidential palace early Saturday as a part of an “unlawful enrichment” investigation into information experiences that she had been seen sporting Rolex watches since taking workplace.
The raid, which got here as Peruvians had been celebrating the Holy Week vacation, shocked many individuals, even in a rustic that has grown accustomed over the previous 20 years to politicians investigated for alleged corruption.
Earlier than midnight on Good Friday, the police used a battering ram to power their method into Ms. Boluarte’s house in Lima, in accordance with stay protection on Latina Noticias. Prosecutors and the police then searched Ms. Boluarte’s workplace and residence within the presidential palace.
The president had failed to look this week for a scheduled appointment with prosecutors to point out them three Rolex watches she has worn and to elucidate how she obtained them. She additionally refused to permit them into her home to execute a search warrant, in accordance with Legal professional Basic Juan Villena, who informed lawmakers that her refusal was “a clear indicator of rebellion.”
The investigation into Ms. Boluarte began on March 18, after the net information program La Encerrona revealed that she had began sporting more and more costly watches, together with a minimum of one Rolex, since taking workplace in December 2022. Prosecutors suspect her of violating the nation’s legal guidelines towards illegal enrichment and failing to declare property. In Peru, the elected authorities should report back to the federal government any property price greater than 10,300 soles, or about $2,774, and disclose any presents obtained from third events.
Native information shops have since reported that Ms. Boluarte has worn three different Rolex watches, in addition to a $50,000 Cartier bracelet, and that banking authorities have detected about $300,000 in deposits of unknown origin made to her private accounts earlier than she took workplace.
The mannequin of Rolex watches she has reportedly worn prices a minimum of $14,000, in accordance with La Encerrona.
Ms. Boluarte has denied wrongdoing, however she has additionally declined to elucidate the origin of the Rolexes publicly, saying only that the first Rolex watch that drew consideration was an merchandise “from long ago.” “It’s in my DNA to not be corrupt,” she told journalists on March 15. “What I have is the fruit of my efforts and my work.”
In a televised handle on Saturday, Ms. Boluarte, flanked by ministers in her cupboard, blamed information shops for creating “smoke screens” that gasoline “chaos and uncertainty,” She referred to as on Peruvians to march to defend democracy.
“I’m an honest woman. I entered the presidential palace with clean hands, and that’s how I’ll leave in 2026,” she mentioned. “Let’s march today for truth and idealism and hug one another with a single heart.”
Ms. Boluarte’s surrogates have instructed different explanations. Hania Pérez de Cuéllar, her housing minister and the previous head of the company that protects mental property, instructed that the Rolex is likely to be pretend and admitted to buying a counterfeit luxury watch herself on a visit to China. A lawyer for Ms. Boluarte mentioned early Saturday that she might need obtained the watches from a “fan” who wished to stay nameless.
Justice Minister Eduardo Arana referred to as the raids “unconstitutional” and “disproportionate” and appealed to lawmakers for “unity” within the face of what he described as an try and destabilize the federal government.
“Justice is being politicized,” he said in a news conference with different ministers. “The purpose is to rupture the government, democracy and institutionality.” He declined to reply questions from journalists.
It was unclear whether or not the Rolex controversy would price Ms. Boluarte key help.
The inside ministry, which controls the nationwide police, expressed help for her, saying in a post on X that it rejected “acts that affect the development of the country, cloaked in questionable judicial provisions.”
“We reaffirm our commitment to continue working for the country’s internal order,” the ministry wrote.
A few of Ms. Boluarte’s allies on the precise blamed her for letting the scenario escalate. And once-friendly information shops have adopted a extra vital stance, an indication that endurance could also be sporting skinny amongst her supporters.
The controversy over the Rolex watches comes because the financial system is flagging and starvation is rising in Peru, a rustic that received worldwide reward for consolidating its democracy and driving a mining-fueled commodities increase to tug hundreds of thousands of its residents from poverty. The investigative information program Cuarto Poder reported that Ms. Boluarte wore one Rolex mannequin price greater than $18,000 at an occasion in February to deal with poverty in susceptible populations.
Some political observers predicted that the scandal was the start of the tip for Ms. Boluarte’s authorities and that it was prone to open the door to a brand new spherical of political turmoil in a rustic that has had six presidents previously six years.
Each method out of the present disaster appeared to result in “a dead end,” the Peruvian political scientist Gonzalo Banda mentioned in an interview. If she remained in workplace, belief in democracy was prone to additional diminish, with unpredictable penalties, he mentioned.
“In Peru, you have a political class no longer responding to citizens, so citizens grow more distant from politics, more disaffected from politics, more fed up with politics, which doesn’t mean they’re not paying attention,” Mr. Banda mentioned. “All that discontent is going to be unleashed in a new election.”
According to a poll in January, Ms. Boluarte is the least well-liked president in Latin America, with an approval score of simply 9 %.
A former civil servant turned politician for a Marxist get together, she served as President Pedro Castillo’s vp. She succeeded him after he was impeached in 2022 and arrested for saying that he was taking on Congress and the justice system.
Ms. Boluarte’s determination to exchange Mr. Castillo as a substitute of resigning — as she as soon as promised she would do to make method for brand spanking new elections — set off violent protests towards her authorities in late 2022 and early 2023, with 49 civilians killed in police and army crackdowns. She is at present underneath investigation by nationwide human rights prosecutors.
Ms. Boluarte can also be the co-author of a e book on human rights regulation that’s underneath investigation for plagiarism.
Earlier than taking workplace, Ms. Boluarte earned $1,100 per thirty days as a bureaucrat with the state company that produces identification paperwork. As minister, she earned about $8,000 per thirty days, and as president makes a bit over $4,000 per thirty days.
Because the authorities retrieved bins from Ms. Boluarte’s residences, a lawmaker announced that her former leftist get together had secured adequate help for a movement for an impeachment vote in Congress, the place Ms. Boluarte has relied on a coalition of right-wing and centrist events to outlive.
Though solely 26 votes are required for a movement to question, 87 votes — or two-thirds of the legislators — are wanted for passage.
Since 2016, when back-to-back corruption scandals began fueling high-stakes political battles in Peru, two presidents, Mr. Castillo and Martín Vizcarra, have been impeached. One, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resigned to keep away from an impeachment vote. All dwelling former Peruvian presidents besides one, Francisco Sagasti, who ruled from late 2020 to mid-2021, have come underneath investigation for corruption or human rights abuses. In 2019, the previous president Alan García killed himself to keep away from arrest.
Congressman Alejandro Muñante, of the far-right Renovación In style get together, mentioned on X that Ms. Boluarte had finished herself no favors together with her silence in current weeks.
“Staying quiet has cost the president a lot and will continue to do so if she keeps opting for this terrible defense strategy,” Mr. Muñante mentioned. “Boluarte still has time to clear this up. If she doesn’t, a new succession wouldn’t be at all crazy.”
