With an approval rating of just two percent, Peruvian President Dina Boluarte might be the world’s most unpopular leader, according to pollsters. Protests greeted her rise to power 29 months ago, and have marked her entire term — joined by assorted scandals, investigations, controversies and a surge in gang violence.
The 63-year-old is the target of a dozen probes, including for her alleged failure to declare gifts of luxury jewels and watches, a scandal inevitably dubbed “Rolexgate.”
She is also under the microscope for a two-week undeclared absence for nose surgery — which she insists was medical, not cosmetic — and is being investigated for her role in a police crackdown that caused the deaths of 50 protesters.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Against that bleak backdrop, Boluarte’s never-high popularity hit rock bottom this month.
The Ipsos polling agency found she had a two-percent approval rating, down from 21 percent when she took office.
“We might be talking about a world record of sustained presidential disapproval,” Ipsos Peru president Alfredo Torres said.
It is the lowest score Ipsos has measured in any of the other 90 countries it surveys, Torres said.
Yet as far as recent Peruvian presidents go, she is not just a survivor, but positively an elder stateswoman.
The South American nation has had six presidents in eight years, and if Boluarte lasts to the end of her term next year, she would be the longest-serving of them all.
Despite not having a party in the Peruvian Congress, she has managed to stay in power with the backing of Peru’s majority right-wing parties.
Analysts say voter lethargy and political expediency have so far helped Boluarte buck the trend of prematurely ousted Peruvian leaders.
“In Peru, there is a political paradox: Boluarte is the weakest president of the last decade,” political analyst Augusto Alvarez of the University of the Pacific said.
However, her weakness is “also her strength,” he said, adding that a lame-duck president is politically useful for Congress.
“It is a great business to have a fragile president whom they [lawmakers] use” to entrench their own power and pass laws beneficial to allies and backers, Alvarez said.
Transparency International’s Peruvian chapter Proetica has cited Congress for “counter-reforms, setbacks in anti-corruption instruments ... and shielding of members of Congress who are ethically questioned.”
Boluarte has other factors counting in her favor.
Congress is seemingly keeping her around for lack of a better, consensus, candidate.
Another plus for Boluarte: Peru’s economy has been performing well, with GDP growing 3.3 percent last year and 3.9 percent in the first quarter of this year — a steep improvement from the 2020 recession blamed on COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Peru’s inflation rate is one of the lowest in the region.
“The economy continues to function, there is enormous resilience, and the population’s income is growing,” said Alvarez.
However, this might have little to do with policy, observers say, and more with external factors such as rising copper prices. Peru is one of the top producers of the metal.
On the street, there is little love for Boluarte, as Peru battles a surge in gang violence characterized by a wave of killings linked to extortion rackets.
Boluarte “has no empathy, she is an incapable president, she does not solve the security problem,” said Saturnino Conde, a 63-year-old teacher.
At frequent marches against the president, the catchphrase: “Dina, Asesina!” (Dina, Murderer!) has become a popular refrain.
However, a full-out rebellion appears unlikely, say analysts.
Peruvians “feel it’s not worth it: If she resigns or is dismissed, she would be replaced by a member of Congress, but Congress also has a terrible image,” Ipsos manager Torres said.
In addition, “there is no other candidate that captivates, which is why people are not in a hurry to remove her from power.”
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