Peru’s president interrogated by prosecutors for hours amid expanding ‘Rolexgate’ probe
Mexico & the Americas
FRANKLIN BRICEO and MEGAN JANETSKY April 5, 2024
Peruvian President Dina Boluarte was interrogated by prosecutors for five hours Friday as authorities investigate whether she illegally received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, luxury watches and jewelry.
Prosecutors have been investigating the highly unpopular leader on charges of illicit enrichment and failure
s
to declare assets. After she
testifiedgave testimony
, Boluarte rolled out of the offices in a car with tinted windows, surrounded by police and security. Neither Boluarte nor prosecutors detailed what was said in the meeting.
The unfolding scandal is the latest turmoil to wrack Perus political system in recent years.
Earlier in the day, scuffles broke out as opposing protesters gathered near the building, waiting for Boluarte to leave. While a number of protesters came to defend the president, carrying a sign reading Dina resist,” others blocks away from the presidential palace railed against the
embattled
leader, carrying brooms and shouting, Get them all out! Riot police drove
them
away
the protesters
with tear gas.
The probe began in mid-March after the digital news program “La Encerrona” spotlighted Boluarte wearing a Rolex watch worth up to $14,000 in Peru.
Other
TV shows later reported that the leader was seen wearing at least two other Rolexes, as well as a gold-and-diamond Cartier bracelet estimated to cost more than $54,000.
The controversy was quickly dubbed Rolexgate on social media.
Peruvian law requires officials to declare jewelry
priced at more thanwhose price exceeds
$2,791.
, and
Its
still
not clear where the watches and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank transfers came from. Boluarte has provided scarce details about the transactions and jewelry, which she did not declare to authorities, but said the Rolex first shown in photos was the fruit of my labor”
after
working since
ageshe was
18.
The controversy will only add headwinds for
Boluarte
, who
is unpopular with 86% of
citizensPeruvians
, according to a March survey by the Institute of Peruvian Studies.
She has no good governance, shes rejected by the majority, her problems with the people are very serious, said Alonso Crdenas, political science professor at Perus Antonio Ruiz de Montoya University.
Armed police officers recently broke down the front door of Boluartes house with a battering ram and entered the property to search for the watches. They did not find them and moved on to the presidential palace,
also to no avail.where they also weren’t located.
Top prosecutor Juan Villena said Tuesday that his office was expanding the scope of the investigation, given
his team’s belief
that
that investigators believe
Boluarte has even more undeclared assets than
they
originally suspected.
The office estimated that her jewelry, including the Cartier bracelet and watches, may be worth as much as $500,000 and said she received more than $400,000 in deposits of unknown origin
in
to her bank account.
Boluarte, a 61-year-old lawyer, was a modest district official before entering
then-
President Pedro Castillos government
in July 2021
as vice president and social inclusion minister
,
with a
total
monthly salary of $8,136
in July 2021
.
After Parliament dismissed Castillo, Boluarte She
became president in December 2022,
after Parliament dismissed Castillo
with a salary of $4,200
per month
. Shortly
there
after, she began wearing the watches in public.
The raid on Friday marked the first time in Perus history that police forcibly entered the home of a sitting president. It came after Boluarte requested more time to answer a court subpoena to testify about the case
; the request, which
was denied as lead prosecutor Villena emphasized Boluartes obligation to cooperate with the investigation.
The
Andean
nation is no stranger to political tumult. Peru has had six presidents in six years, following waves of political controversies. That doesn’t mean Boluarte is soon to be ejected from the presidency; analysts say she is unlikely to face any real consequences at least in the short term. Sitting presidents in Peru cant be charged with crimes while in office, and Congress will be reluctant to move forward with impeachment proceedings.
Boluarte’s alliance with a coalition of congressional leaders means she will likely stay in office until 2026, said Will Freeman, a fellow of Latin American studies for the Council of Foreign Relations. Freeman says Boluarte is a puppet who has enabled
the
lawmakers to pass reforms that are slowly dismantling democracy so
that
they can stay in power.
Perus Congress on Thursday shot down two requests by a number of lawmakers to remove Boluarte from office.
Associated Press writer Briceo reported from Lima and Janetsky from Mexico City.
