(Lima) Pressure against Peruvian President Dina Boluarte escalated Monday when lawmakers submitted to Parliament a request for impeachment for “permanent moral incapacity.” This request comes three days after police broke down the front door of his residence to find luxury watches, as part of an investigation.
The request was submitted by lawmakers from various parties, including Free Peru to which Mme Boluarte once belonged. To impeach the president, this decision requires 87 votes of the 130-seat unicameral Parliament, and so far, five parties, which total 57 votes, have pledged to defend Mme Boluarte.
The latter is under investigation for allegedly acquiring an undisclosed collection of luxury watches since she became vice president and minister of social inclusion in July 2021, then president in December 2022. She has denied these accusations.
In their request, the deputies cite the tax investigation against Dina Boluarte as well as national problems, such as the increase in crime.
On Friday evening, armed police officers broke down the front door of the president’s house with a ram, looking for Rolex watches, as part of an investigation. It was the first time in Peruvian history that police had forcibly entered the house of a sitting president.
The investigation began in mid-March after a television program showed the president wearing a Rolex watch worth up to $14,000 in Peru. Other TV shows later mentioned that this one had at least two other Rolexes.
Dina Boluarte, a 61-year-old lawyer, was a modest district civil servant before joining the government of then-President Pedro Castillo, drawing a monthly salary of $8,136 in July 2021. Mme Boluarte then became president, which corresponds to a salary of less than $4,200 per month. Soon after, she started showing off her luxury watches.
Dina Boluarte did not list the three watches in a required asset declaration form.
On Monday, the latter also lost three members of the Cabinet following the resignation of the Ministers of the Interior, Education and Women.
The Minister of the Interior, Víctor Torres, told the press that his resignation was due to a family matter, while the heads of the Ministry of Women, Nancy Tolentino, and of Education, Miriam Ponce, did not not given reasons in the announcements they shared on social networks.
Mme Boluarte became president in December 2022, when she replaced then-President Pedro Castillo, who was removed by Parliament and is now imprisoned. He is under investigation for alleged corruption and rebellion.