Luxury watches yield presidential crisis in Peru
LIMA, Peru — Peru President Dina Boluarte will answer questions Friday over her ownership of a trio of luxury watches, her attorneys said Tuesday, a day after she reshuffled her cabinet as an alleged illicit enrichment scandal further threatens her presidency.
The Cabinet shakeup Monday came as lawmakers submitted to Parliament a request to remove Ms. Boluarte from office for “permanent moral incapacity.” The request came three days after police broke down the front door of her residence to search for the watches as part of an investigation.
The law firm of attorney Mateo Castañeda, Ms. Boluarte’s lawyer, said on X that the Attorney General’s Office denied her client’s request to move up the interview’s date and that prosecutors said “they are not responsible for the political whirlwind” in Peru.
Prosecutors have also instructed Ms. Boluarte to show them the watches Friday.
The shakeup comes as Ms. Boluarte struggles to govern amid sinking popularity, investigations against her and frequent scandals involving senior officials.
The latest appointments were for ministers of interior, education, women, agriculture, production and foreign trade.
All outgoing ministers submitted their resignation Monday. Interior Minister Víctor Torres told reporters his was due to a family matter while the heads of the Ministry of Women, Nancy Tolentino, and of Education, Miriam Ponce, did not offer reasons in the announcements they shared on social media.
Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Washingtonbased Wilson Center think tank, said the changes “will not move the needle on public opinion or reduce the chances of impeachment or protests.”
Ms. Boluarte is being preliminarily investigated for allegedly acquiring an undisclosed collection of luxury watches since becoming vice president and social inclusion minister in July 2021 and then president in December 2022. She did not list the three watches in an obligatory asset declaration form.
Ms. Boluarte has denied the illicit enrichment accusations.
Peru is no stranger to presidential crises. No president has finished a full term since 2016, and the South American country cycled through three of them in a week in 2020, when lawmakers flexed their impeachment powers.