The Peruvian President Dina Boluarte spent five hours on Friday answering questions from lawyers.They are looking into whether she got a lot of money, expensive watches, and jewelry in a way that was against the law.
The law is examining the unpopular leader for acquiring money through illegal means and for failing to report all their possessions. After she spoke in court, Boluarte left in a car with dark windows, with police and security around her. Neither Boluarte nor the prosecutors explained what was discussed in the meeting.
The scandal is the newest problem in Peru’s government in the last few years. Earlier today, there were fights between protesters who don’t agree with each other. They were near a building, waiting for Boluarte to come out.
Many people went to support the president at the palace. They had a sign that said “Dina resist. ” But, there were also people nearby who were angry at the president. They had brooms and yelled “get them all out. ” The police used tear gas to make them leave.
The investigation started in the middle of March after a news show called La Encerrona showed Boluarte wearing an expensive Rolex watch in Peru. Other TV shows said that the leader was seen wearing at least two more expensive watches and a fancy bracelet worth over $54,000.
The issue was called “Rolexgate” on social media right away.
Peruvian law says that officials must report jewelry worth more than US$2,791, but it’s not known where the expensive watches and large amounts of money sent to bank accounts came from.
Boluarte didn’t give much information about the weird money movements and jewelry that she didn’t tell the authorities about. But she said that the Rolex watch in the pictures was something she earned from working since she was 18.
The disagreement will make things even harder for Boluarte, who is not well-liked by 86 percent of people in Peru, according to a survey from March by the Institute of Peruvian Studies.
“Alonso Cárdenas, a political science professor at Peru’s Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University, said that she does not have good leadership, most people do not support her, and her issues with the people are very serious. ”
On Friday night, the police forcefully opened Boluarte’s front door and went inside to look for the watches. They looked for them but couldn’t find them, so they went to the presidential palace, but they weren’t there either.
Juan Villena, the top prosecutor, said on Tuesday that his office is broadening the investigation because they think Boluarte has more secret money and possessions than they thought at first.
The office thinks her jewelry, like the Cartier bracelet and watches, could be worth up to $500,000. They also said she got over $400,000 in deposits into her bank account that they don’t know where it came from.
61-year-old Boluarte was a lawyer and district official. Then he became the vice president and social inclusion minister in President Pedro Castillo’s government. He started in July 2021 and made $8,136 per month. She became president in December 2022, after Parliament fired Castillo, and she gets paid $4,200 every month. Soon after that, she started wearing the watches when she went out in public.
The raid on Friday was the first time ever in Peru’s history that police went into the home of a president without permission. Boluarte asked for more time to answer a court order to testify about the case, but the lead prosecutor said no and emphasized that Boluarte has to cooperate with the investigation.
The Andean country often experiences political unrest. In the past six years, Peru has had six different presidents because there have been a lot of political problems. This doesn’t mean Boluarte will be kicked out of the presidency soon. Experts told The Associated Press that she probably won’t face any serious problems, at least for now. The current president of Peru cannot be accused of crimes while in office, and Congress is unlikely to start the process of removal from office.
Boluarte made friends with a group of politicians, so she will probably keep her job until 2026, according to Will Freeman, who knows a lot about Latin America. Freeman believes Boluarte is controlled by others and is helping politicians pass laws that are hurting democracy, so they can keep their jobs.
Peru’s lawmakers voted no to remove Boluarte from his job.
Tag: President Dina Boluarte
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Peru’s president questioned for hours by prosecutors as investigation grows
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Machu Picchu’s primary airport in Peru closes as protests intensify
The airport in Cusco, which served as the entrance to Machu Picchu, Peru’s most famous tourist destination, has been shut down for safety reasons.
Authorities have shut down Cusco International Airport, a busy entry point to the mountaintop Incan citadel of Machu Picchu, one of the most popular tourist destinations in the world, as anti-government demonstrations spread across the country.
Numerous airports in Peru have been the target of weeks of protests that have claimed dozens of lives nationwide.
The Alejandro Velasco Astete International Airport in Cusco was preemptively closed due to safety concerns, according to the transport ministry of Peru on Thursday.
“This action is being taken to safeguard peoples’ wellbeing and the safety of aeronautical operations,” the ministry said in a statement.
Clashes in Cusco – an arrival point for people visiting the country’s tourism crown jewel of Machu Picchu – broke out on Wednesday with protesters attempting to enter the airport, while others torched a bus station, attacked shops and blocked train tracks with large rocks.
Peru’s rights ombudsman said one person died in Cusco and more than 50 people, including 19 police officers, were injured in the turmoil, while police said they had arrested 11 people.
Protests continue to escalate across Peru since first erupting in early December after the removal of former President Pedro Castillo, who was thrown out of office for attempting to dissolve Congress and rule by decree in a failed bid to prevent an impeachment vote against him.
Supporters of Castillo have marched for weeks demanding new elections and the removal of current leader Dina Boluarte, who replaced Castillo as president. Boluarte, 60, was Castillo’s vice president but took over once he was removed on December 7.
Castillo, who was being investigated in several fraud cases during his tenure, has been remanded in custody for 18 months, charged with rebellion.
Clashes between protesters and security forces have left at least 42 people dead, including a police officer who was burned alive in a vehicle, while hundreds more have been injured.
Almost half of the victims died in clashes on Monday night alone in the southern Puno region, where 17 people were due to be buried on Thursday. Gathered in a circle around a coffin, relatives of one of the victims held posters reading: “Dina corrupt murderer” and “we are not terrorists but citizens who demand justice”.
Also on Thursday, trade unions, left-wing parties and social collectives marched through Lima, the capital which has largely been spared of violence thus far, to denounce a “racist and classist… dictatorship”.
The social unrest has laid bare the deep divisions between residents of the affluent capital and populations in Peru’s long-neglected countryside. Castillo was a political novice who lived in a two-story adobe home in the Andean highlands before moving to the presidential palace after winning a narrow victory in elections in 2021. The result rocked Peru’s political establishment.
Al Jazeera’s Mariana Sanchez, reporting from Lima, said the atmosphere was tense at the marches in the capital following days of clashes between protesters and police in different parts of the country which had seen demonstrators killed by the gunfire of security forces.
“People have been marching around the centre of the capital demanding the resignation of President Dina Boluarte. They are calling her an assassin and saying that she is responsible for the deaths,” Sanchez said.
“Prime Minister Alberto Otárola has said that Dina Boluarte will not resign, that she is solidly conducting the country and that her resignation would be like opening the door to anarchy,” she said.
The prime minister weighed in on behalf of Boluarte in “response to a statement put out by governors in different parts of the country saying that, and urging her, that she must resign because that’s the only way to resolving the crisis”, she added.
In addition to demanding Boluarte’s resignation, protesters want Congress to be dissolved and a new body set up to rewrite the constitution – which was adopted in 1993 under the mandate of Alberto Fujimori.
The former president is serving a 25-year prison sentence for crimes against humanity committed during his time in power.
Source: Aljazeera.com