Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Monday replaced six ministers after they resigned as her government is rocked by a political crisis fueled by an alleged illicit enrichment scandal involving luxury watches.
The Cabinet shakeup came as lawmakers submitted to parliament a request to remove her from office for “permanent moral incapacity” three days after police broke down the front door of her residence to search for the watches as part of an investigation.
The request was submitted by lawmakers from various parties, including Peru Libre to which Boluarte once belonged. To remove Boluarte, the move requires 87 votes from the 130-seat unicameral parliament, and so far, five parties that together have 54 votes expressed support for the president following the raid.
Photo: Reuters
Boluarte is being preliminarily investigated for allegedly acquiring an undisclosed collection of luxury watches since becoming vice president and social inclusion minister in July 2021 and then president in December 2022.
Lawmakers in their request to remove her from office cite the investigation against Boluarte as well as countrywide problems, such as rising crime.
She has denied the illicit enrichment accusations.
Late on Friday, 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.
The probe began in the middle of last month after a TV show spotlighted Boluarte wearing a Rolex watch worth up to US$14,000 in Peru. Other TV shows later mentioned at least two more Rolexes.
Boluarte, a 61-year-old lawyer, was a modest district official before entering then-Peruvian president Pedro Castillo’s government on a monthly salary of US$8,136 in July 2021. Boluarte later assumed the presidency with a lower salary of US$4,200 per month. Shortly thereafter, she began to display the luxury watches.
She did not list the three watches in an obligatory asset declaration form.
On Monday, Boluarte initially lost three Cabinet members when the ministers of the interior, education and women abruptly resigned.
Victor Torres told reporters his resignation as interior minister was due to a family matter, while the heads of the ministry of women Nancy Tolentino, and of education Miriam Ponce did not offer reasons in the announcements they shared on social media.
Their resignations were followed by the ministers of agriculture, production and foreign trade stepping down.
On announcing his resignation, Torres warned that if Boluarte leaves power “the country will sink.”
Boluarte then swore in six new ministers, including Walter Ortiz, a retired police officer who had previously been director against organized crime, as interior minister. The Cabinet has 18 ministries, in addition to the position of prime minister held by Gustavo Adrianzen.
She also swore in Elizabeth Caldo, a former executive at telecommunications giant Telefonica, as her new foreign trade minister, and Morgan Quero as her education minister.
PHISHING: The con might appear convincing, as the scam e-mails can coincide with genuine messages from Apple saying you have run out of storage For a while you have been getting messages from Apple saying “your iCloud storage is full.” They say you have exceeded your storage plan, so documents are no longer being backed up, and photos you take are not being uploaded. You have been resisting Apple’s efforts to get you to pay a minimum of ￡0.99 (US$1.33) a month for more storage, but it seems that you cannot keep putting off the inevitable: You have received an e-mail which says your iCloud account has been blocked, and your photos and videos would be deleted very soon. To keep them you need
The Israeli military has demolished entire villages as part of its invasion of south Lebanon, rigging homes with explosives and razing them to the ground in massive remote detonations. The Guardian reviewed three videos posted by the Israeli military and on social media, which showed Israel carrying out mass detonations in the villages of Taybeh, Naqoura and Deir Seryan along the Israel-Lebanon border. Lebanese media has reported more mass detonations in other border villages, but satellite imagery was not readily available to verify these claims. The demolitions came after Israeli Minister of Defense Israel Katz called for the destruction of
A US YouTuber who caused outrage for filming himself kissing a statue commemorating Korean wartime sex slaves has been sentenced to six months in prison, a court in Seoul said yesterday. Johnny Somali, 25, gained notoriety several years ago for recording himself doing a series of provocative stunts in South Korea and Japan, and streaming them on platforms such as YouTube and Twitch. South Korean authorities indicted Somali — whose real name is Ramsey Khalid Ismael — in 2024 on public order violations and obstruction of business, and banned him from leaving the country. “The court has sentenced him to six months in
The death toll from a shooting in western Afghanistan rose to 11 on Saturday, after gunmen targeted civilians at a picnic spot in Herat, the provincial authority said. Bullet marks were visible on a wall of the Sayed Mohammad Agha Shia shrine, while bloodstains marked a blanket abandoned at the scene. “Eleven people have been recorded dead and eight others wounded from Friday’s incident, with the condition of two of the wounded reported as critical,” Herat’s information office said in a statement. The update raises a toll of seven killed provided on Friday by the Afghan Ministry of Interior Affairs
RSS