Dina Boluarte

Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra (born 31 May 1962) is a Peruvian politician, civil servant, and lawyer currently serving as the President of Peru since 7 December 2022.

She had served as the first vice president and minister at the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion under President Pedro Castillo.

Boluarte was born in Chalhuanca, Apurímac on 31 May 1962.

She graduated as a lawyer from the University of San Martín de Porres and did postgraduate studies at that university.

In 2004, she co-authored a book, The Recognition of Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law, which was later investigated for plagiarism after 55% of the text included was marked as plagiarized from a 2002 post on the National Human Rights Commission of Mexico's website according to Turnitin software.

She served as an officer at the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status (RENIEC) from 2007 until 2022.

With Boluarte assuming the presidency as the sole vice president, President of Congress Alejandro Soto Reyes is next in the line of succession.

Boluarte is the first woman to become President of Peru.

She was a member of Marxist political party Free Peru, and was sworn in following President Pedro Castillo's attempt to dissolve Congress, citing the legislature's obstruction of his government, which resulted in his impeachment, ousting, and arrest.

She has worked at National Registry of Identification and Civil Status as an attorney and officer since 2007.

Peru has had seven presidents from 2015 to 2022.

In her first speech to the Congress, she denounced President Castillo and declared her will to form a national unity government to resolve the present political crisis.

In the formation of her government, she consulted all the major parties, but selected no members of Congress.

Instead she formed what was widely viewed as a technocratic government led by Pedro Angulo Arana, an attorney who faced 13 criminal investigations as of his appointment in December 2022, including abuse of authority, abuse of public administration, abuse of public faith, blackmail, extortion and others.

Observers commented that with growing protests and an undefined support base, Boluarte's government will likely not be given the space, either by Congress or the people, to succeed.

Her presidency comes during a period of political turmoil in Peru that began in 2017.

She is the sixth president in five years.

She would quickly receive support from right-wing groups and the media organizations in Peru due to her support for conservatism and the existing economic model.

Boluarte created a coalition with the majority right-wing Congress of Peru, which had lost but not conceded the 2021 Peruvian general election, and the Peruvian Armed Forces, raising concerns about a civilian-military government forming.

During her first months as president, protests against her government emerged across Peru, during which authorities perpetrated the Ayacucho massacre and Juliaca massacre.

Analysts said that the Boluarte administration was undergoing democratic backsliding and heading towards authoritarianism

Attorney General of Peru Patricia Benavides announced investigations on 10 January 2023 to determine if Boluarte, Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, Minister of the Interior Víctor Rojas, and Minister of Defense Jorge Chávez committed genocide and aggravated homicide.

Groups in Congress opposed to Boluarte opened an impeachment motion against her on 25 January 2023, citing moral incapacity.

Some Latin American governments, including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela have continued to recognize Pedro Castillo as the democratically elected President of Peru and have refused to recognize Boluarte.

She ran unsuccessfully for mayor of Lima's Surquillo district in 2018, representing the Free Peru party.

Boluarte's presidency is the most recent instance in Peruvian history where the first vice president succeeded a president who could no longer serve, after First Vice President Martín Vizcarra became president upon the resignation of President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski in 2018.

She also participated in the extraordinary parliamentary elections in 2020 for Free Peru, though she did not obtain a congressional seat.

In the 2021 presidential election she was part of the presidential ticket of Pedro Castillo, which was victorious in the run-off.

During the campaign, Boluarte was widely viewed to position herself more moderately than Castillo, saying that she would not support overriding the Constitutional Court of Peru, but still stated "the wealthy middle class of Lima will surely cease to be a wealthy middle class."

Boluarte also said that if Castillo were to be removed from office, she would resign in support of him.

While campaigning in Piura, Diario Correo reported on counter-terrorism police documents that alleged Boluarte was seen working beside members of MOVADEF, an alleged arm of Shining Path.

On 29 July 2021, she was appointed minister of Development and Social Inclusion in the government of Pedro Castillo.

On 23 January 2022, during an interview with La República, Boluarte stated that she never embraced the ideology of Free Peru.

The party's general secretary, Vladimir Cerrón, subsequently expelled Boluarte from Free Peru and posted on Twitter, "Always loyal, traitors never."

Cerrón also claimed that Boluarte's comment threatened party unity.

Party members later requested her expulsion, stating Boluarte "does nothing more than create division and discredit the image" of Cerrón.

On 25 November 2022, she resigned from her position as the minister of Development and Social Inclusion, but remained as first vice president.

On 5 December 2022, after voting 13 in favor and 8 against, a constitutional complaint was filed by the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations against Boluarte, alleging that she operated a private club named the Apurímac Club (Club Departamental de Apurímac) while she was the minister of Development.

On 7 December 2022, during the Peruvian political crisis when Pedro Castillo attempted to dissolve the Congress of the Republic of Peru during impeachment proceedings against him, Boluarte condemned the move as a "breakdown of the constitutional order" and assumed the presidency after the impeachment of Castillo.

Boluarte thus became Peru's first female president.