And suddenly, Dina Boluarte became the new president of Peru

For the first time in its history, Peru is governed by a woman. Dina Boluarte was sworn in before Parliament on Wednesday 7 December. But it wasn’t the polls that made this 60-year-old lawyer the new Peruvian head of state. A few hours earlier he was still vice president and minister of development and social inclusion. Until Parliament votes to oust what should now be called the former president, Pedro Castillo, for attempting a coup.

Tight deadlines

“I presume [le pouvoir] in accordance with the Constitution of Peru, from now until July 26, 2026”, date of expiry of Pedro Castillo’s mandate, Dina Boluarte told Parliament during her inauguration. However, he came close to never reaching the highest office in the state. Just two days earlier, a congressional committee dismissed a lawsuit filed against her. The Comptroller General of the Republic accused her of having held a private position, that of President of the departmental club of Apurimac, a regional institution, at the same time as her position as a public official. A combination prohibited by Peruvian law and for which he risked not only exercising the presidency of the country for ten years, but also any public responsibility. Dina Boluarte had acknowledged the facts, justifying “bureaucratic reasons” the moment in which the new president of the club takes office.

A leftist president

” She has the profile of a female fighter”, said leftist MP Sigrid Bazan. Like her predecessor, the new Peruvian president declares herself to be leftist and defends her modest origins. Dina Boluarte is in fact from the department of Apurímac, a rather poor region located in southern Peru, with an indigenous majority. In your first speech as president, you called for “time to save our country from corruption and incompetence”.

Front page photo credit: YouTube screenshot.