Peruvian President Dina Boluarte was ousted on Friday after Congress declared her “morally incapacitated” after a string of scandals.
Boluarte, 63, had low approval ratings following accusations that she had illicitly profited from her office and was responsible for lethal crackdowns on protests.
According to numbers from Ipsos Peru in January, she was polling at 5 percent.
According to Agencia EFE, Spain’s state-owned international news agency, the president refused to attend the chamber and did not leave the Government Palace throughout the day until the dismissal was completed.
It said that hours later, Boluarte said goodbye “with a message to the nation, which was cut off by all the television channels that were broadcasting it, including the state-run TV Perú, and in which she accepted her dismissal.”
Speaker of the Parliament Jose Jeri has now been sworn in as Peru’s seventh president since 2016.
He blamed Boluarte for countrywide problems, such as rising crime. In March, Peru’s government declared a state of emergency in the capital, Lima, while it also deployed soldiers to the streets to help quell a recent surge of violence.
“The main enemy is out there on the streets: criminal gangs,” said Jeri. “We must declare war on crime.”
Boluarte came to power in December 2022 after her predecessor, President Pedro Castillo, under whom she had served as vice president, was ousted and arrested after he attempted to dissolve Congress.
Castillo is currently in jail and faces 34 years in prison if he is found guilty of charges of “rebellion,” abuse of authority, and disrupting the peace.
The Boluarte government has been rocked by a political crisis fueled by a scandal involving luxury watches.
In March 2024, a TV show called “La Encerrona” spotlighted Boluarte wearing a Rolex watch that was worth up to $14,000 in Peru. Other TV shows later mentioned at least two more Rolexes. This then prompted a probe.
In April, armed police officers broke down the front door of Boluarte’s house with a battering ram in search of Rolex watches.
The raid marked the first time in Peru’s history that police forcibly entered the home of a sitting president.
She has denied the accusations of illicit enrichment.
In July, she decided to double her salary.
The president’s salary had previously been fixed at 15,600 soles ($4,400), a level introduced in 2006 when then-President Alan Garcia reduced it from 42,000 soles. She then had it increased to 35,568 soles ($10,067), about 30 times higher than Peru’s minimum wage.
According to the U.S. Department of State’s 2024 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices, there were no significant human rights issues in the country.
It said that there were credible reports of serious restrictions on freedom of expression and media freedom, including violence or threats of violence against journalists and censorship, and violence against union leaders.
The report said that prosecutors advanced investigations regarding 50 civilians allegedly killed by security forces between December 2022 and February 2023 during political protests.
It said that in the first nine months of 2024, prosecutors formalized accusations against 35 military officers and one police officer for direct or indirect responsibility for 10 deaths in Ayacucho in December 2022, and 198 police and military personnel for the death or serious injury of 317 citizens.
In July 2024, Peru’s Congress rejected the attorney general’s request to lift Boluarte’s immunity so she could be investigated for her alleged role in the 2022–2023 protest killings.
Boluarte denied having knowledge of the situation on the ground during her official testimony.
She also faced a probe for abandoning her post after she underwent a secret nose job without informing Congress that she would temporarily hand over her duties as head of state.
Boluarte also denied that accusation.
