Dina Boluarte, a leader with roots in the independent left to govern the “difficult” Peru

  • The substitute for the dismissed Pedro Castillo asked the right-wing opposition for a truce when he was sworn in as interim president

  • Boluarte lacks his own party and must negotiate with adversaries accustomed to plotting and destabilization

Peru has its first female president Dina Boluarte. He took office this Wednesday, replacing Pedro Castillo, dismissed by Congress. However, no one in Peru dares to predict how long their interim government could last, taking into account that before Castillo they abandoned executive functions early. Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, Martin Vizcarra and Manuel Merino. The former resigned before being censured, as was the case with his replacement. Merino, meanwhile, was unable to hold onto power in the midst of popular protests. Boularte did not overlook this background when he asked Congress “a political truce to install a Government of national unity”. This “high responsibility”, he said, “must be assumed by mutual agreement by all”.

Boularte was Castillo’s vice president but turned her back on him when he tried to dissolve the Chamber, which, in turn, ended up removing him from the Pizarro Palace with the support of the military and the police. “This Congress, in response to the constitutional mandate, has made a decision and it is my duty to act accordingly.” Her outstretched hand to the congressmen barely elicited subdued applause. “I am not going to ask that my government not be audited or that the decisions that will have to be made are not scrutinized; what I am asking for is a term, valuable time to rescue our country,” he said, after being sworn in a position whose stability is a mystery to analysts. The right-wing opposition hopes, above all, that he convenes early elections.

The 60-year-old lawyer Boluarte should conclude her provisional term on July 28, 2026. But that day is far away on the calendar. For this reason, in her inaugural speech, she raised the white flag of peace in front of a discredited Parliament, but with the capacity to make life impossible for her. “I summon a wide dialogue process between all political forces represented or not in Congress”. For the interim president, “it is essential to resume the agenda of economic growth with social inclusion, decent employment, emergency care for vulnerable sectors, full respect for fundamental rights and also the political reform that our country requires”.

A history of the left

Born in 1962 in Chalhuanca, a city of less than 30,000 inhabitants built almost 3,000 meters above sea level, Boluarte comes from the independent left. She was a candidate for mayor of Surquillo, on the outskirts of Lima, for the Peru Libertarian party. In 2020 she joined Perú Libre (PL), the same traditional left-wing formation that proposed Castillo as a presidential candidate. She accompanied him on the electoral formula as vice president. PL’s break with Castillo ended up dragging her down and she was expelled from that party.

Boluarte held the position of Minister of Development and Social Inclusion. He withdrew when, weeks ago, Castillo, in one of his last attempts to stay afloat, appointed the highly questioned Betssy Chávez as president of the Council of Ministers. From that moment, her relations with the head of state had no return. His rejection of the attempt to dissolve Congress was immediate. He is now the main executive authority of the country.

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“Governing Peru is not an easy task”he acknowledged. Boluarte asked for the support of the Prosecutor’s Office to “enter without half measures to the structures corrupted by the mafias inside the State.” Her first measure, she assured, “will be to confront corruption in all its lurid dimensions.” The press and judicial bodies have reported shameful acts and sponsorship against the money of Peruvians. This cancer must be removed from the country.”

Expectations

“While the new government is established and the composition of its cabinet is known, uncertainty remains about the position that the new president will develop on several points that are transcendent for future governance. First, the return of politics to replace the negotiation under the table and the exchange of favors, which have characterized the government of the outgoing Castillo. Asking for a political game facing the country, protects us from gossip and manipulation,” said the Lima newspaper The Republic in his publisher. “Also, the Executive should propose a boost to the necessary political reform to avoid the permanent instability in which the country has been debating since 2016 and to guarantee the real balance of public powers, without the excesses into which both the Legislative and the Executive have fallen”.

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