Dina Boluarte

In the 2021 presidential election she was part of the presidential ticket of Pedro Castillo,[27] which was victorious in the run-off.[28][29]

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."[30] Boluarte also said that if Castillo were to be removed from office, she would resign in support of him.[31] 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.[20]

On 29 July 2021, she was appointed minister of Development and Social Inclusion in the government of Pedro Castillo.[32]

Boluarte with Castillo at Palacio de Gobierno in 2022

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.[33] Party members later requested her expulsion, stating Boluarte "does nothing more than create division and discredit the image" of Cerrón.[34]

On 25 November 2022, she resigned from her position as the minister of Development and Social Inclusion, but remained as first vice president.[35]

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 (Spanish: Club Departamental de Apurímac) while she was the minister of Development.[36][37]

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.[38] Boluarte thus became Peru's first female president.[39]

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. Peru has had seven presidents from 2015 to 2022.[40]

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.[41] 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.[42][43]

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.[44]

Nations recognizing presidential governments
  Pedro Castillo
  Dina Boluarte

International recognition of Boluarte's government has been mixed.

Members of the São Paulo Forum like Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Gabriel Boric of Chile recognize Boluarte. The United States has recognized Boluarte as president. Spain was also in support, championing a return to "constitutional order."[45]

Latin American governments, including Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia, Honduras, Mexico and Venezuela have continued to recognize that Pedro Castillo is the democratically elected President of Peru following the events in December 2022 and refused to recognize Boluarte.[16][17][18] Left-wing Latin American leaders such as Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela, Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, Gustavo Petro of Colombia, Alberto Fernández of Argentina, and Luis Arce of Bolivia denounced Boluarte's government as a right wing coup, comparing the situation as similar to ascension of Bolivia's Jeanine Áñez during the 2019 Bolivian political crisis. The latter presidents continue to support Pedro Castillo's claims he is the rightful president under a "government of exception."[19][46]

IACHR representatives meeting with President Boluarte during the 2022 Peruvian political protests

According to CNN, the Boluarte government "has responded to protesters with both stick and carrot; President Boluarte has offered the possibility of holding early elections, while her Defense Minister Luis Alberto Otárola ... declared a state of emergency and deployed troops to the street."[47] The New York Times would describe Bolaurte's response as "hawkish".[5] On 12 December, following protests that broke out after the removal of Pedro Castillo, President Boluarte announced that she and Congress agreed to move the next general election from April 2026 to April 2024.[48] On 14 December, Alberto Otárola, Boluarte's defense minister, declared a state of emergency for 30 days to quell "acts of violence and vandalism."[49]

Responding to protests, Boluarte said she does not understand why anyone would protest against her and supported the repressive response of authorities.[50] Boluarte's response has been widely condemned by NGOs, while being supported by more right-leaning parties in Congress.[50] Amnesty International's Americas head Erika Guevara-Rosas called for governmental restraint, saying: "State repression against protesters is only deepening the crisis in Peru."[51] Protests have for the most part, been the most fierce and disruptive in Quechua majority regions, the center of Castillo's support. Given the harshness of the Boluarte government's response, this has led some to draw comparison between Boluarte's actions and that of previous anti-Native governments of Peru, which drew comparisons between indigenous groups and the Shining Path, as to persecute them.[49][52] Bolaurte would also state that the demonstrations occurred due to blackmail and provocations by Bolivian officials,[53][54][5] something the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights said they did not observe[54] while The New York Times said that "The government has yet to provide clear evidence to back up ... claims of high-level coordination by a terrorist organization or illicit funding behind the violent attacks."[5]

The government appointed ex-colonel Juan Carlos Liendo to head the National Intelligence Service, who claimed that the demonstrations in the country were not social in nature but part of a "terrorist insurrection. This appointment comes as a surprise, since Juan Carlos Liendo is close to right-wing political groups and claimed that the government of Pedro Castillo, to which Dina Boluarte belonged, was an "extension of the terrorist group Shining Path.[55]

In a joint statement in January 2023, over 2,000 academics and researchers expressed their "strongest rejection of the authoritarian course that the government of Dina Boluarte and Alberto Otárola" and believed "that these are not isolated events but a pattern of conduct that places us in a dangerous transition to authoritarianism", concluding that "If President Boluarte is only able to offer the country confrontation and violence, she should resign".[56][57] Notable signers included Steven Levitsky, Lucía Dammert, Martín Tanaka, Daniel Alarcón, Josep Joan Moreso, Gerardo L. Munck, Mirtha Vásquez, Sara Beatriz Guardia and Carmen Mc Evoy.[56][57]

Amnesty International would report in May 2023 that Boluarte "consistently supported and justified the actions of law enforcement agencies, despite increasingly clear evidence of their unlawful actions" and that her government "stigmatized protesters as terrorists and violent, contributing to the escalation of violence and encouraging law enforcement to continue to act in the same way".[13] Boluarte would respond to criticism saying that she did not have control of the Peruvian Armed Forces.[13]

On 15 December 2022, the Peruvian Army in Ayacucho massacred[58] protesters demonstrating against the Boluarte government. During the protests, the situation intensified when the military deployed helicopters to fire at protesters, who later tried to take over the city's airport, which was defended by the Peruvian Army and the National Police of Peru.[59][60] Troops responded by firing live ammunition at protesters, resulting in ten dead and 61 injured;[61][62][63] 90% of the injured had gunshot wounds while those killed were shot in the head or torso.[64][65] The founder of the Peruvian Forensic Anthropology Team (EPAF), forensic anthropologist Carmen Rosa Cardoza, analysed evidence surrounding those who were killed, saying that the military was shooting to kill and that the gunshot wounds in the head and torso were consistent with wounds suffered during human rights violations, explaining that wounds during an armed conflict are usually found on the extremities.[66] Gloria Cano, attorney for the Association for Human Rights (Aprodeh) who analyzed human rights abuses during the internal conflict in Peru, said officers likely ordered troops to simply "eliminate the enemy" and did not specify actions to take against protesters, with the attorney stating officers "had to explain to them that in case of need they had to shoot into the air, to the ground. If they take them out without giving them specific orders, they will do what they learn, which is to shoot the vital segments of the human body".[66]

Boluarte with Alberto Otárola as Defense Minister on 15 December

Sources close to Boluarte, according to La Republica, reported that she wanted to resign from the presidency following the massacre, though defense minister Alberto Otárola convinced her that if she were to resign, her and other ministers would lose their immunity and possibly be prosecuted for crimes.[67][31] Otárola then promised to Boluarte that he could build support for her from the Peruvian Armed Forces and right-wing groups according to La Republica.[67] Boluarte would then make Otárola her prime minister on 21 December 2022.[68] In addition to the prime minister, she named a new interior minister, defense minister and education minister.[68] Boluarte's new Minister of Education, Óscar Becerra, was reported to have a history of being a Fujimorist and making homophobic comments.[69]

At least 18 people were killed and over 100 injured by police responding to protests in Juliaca,[70][71][72][73] with all of the deaths being attributed to gunshot wounds.[74] While discussing the violence, Boluarte said that Bolivia was responsible, stating "Today we know that a type of firearms and ammunition would have entered the country through southern Peru" and that protesters were not shot by authorities, saying the ammunition found in victims was used "neither by the National Police nor by the Armed Forces".[75][54] According to La República, videos and photographic evidence showed that the PNP used long rifles to fire at demonstrators and individuals nearby.[76] Dany Humpire Molina, former manager of Expertise at the Public Prosecutor's Office and a doctor in forensic science, stated "The projectiles seem to have been fired by AKM rifles, which is weapons used by the National Police, ... If the bullets were found inside the body, they are described as penetrating. When the shots are of a penetrating type, as is the case, they are long-distance. And if the necropsy protocol determines that they went from behind, it means that, at the time of the shooting, the demonstrators were running, fleeing".[76] Edgar Stuardo Ralón Orellana of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, stated "we do not find in people something that said that they are responding to some kind of another organization, but an authentic manifestation of a discontent with the abandonment that that region (Puno) has historically had".[54] The former head of the National Directorate of Intelligence (DINI), General Wilson Barrantes Mendoza, also criticized the Boluarte's response, stating that accusations of foreign involvement were "a distraction to confuse the population, noting that it has an external component. Everything we are experiencing is internal" and that the accusation of "a 'terrorist inurgency' is stupid".[77]

On 10 January 2023, Attorney General of Peru Patricia Benavides announced investigations for the alleged crimes of genocide, aggravated homicide and serious injuries against Boluarte, along with Prime Minister Alberto Otárola, Minister of the Interior Víctor Rojas and Minister of Defense Jorge Chávez.[14] Groups in Congress opposed to Boluarte then opened an impeachment motion against her on 25 January 2023, citing moral incapacity.[15]

In April 2023, Boluarte faced a vacancy motion due to her response to the protests against her, though Congress voted against proceedings against her.[78] A second motion for vacancy was opened in October 2023 due to some left-wing benches in Congress believing that Bolaurte violated Article 115 of the constitution for leaving Peru without congressional approval, especially since she did not have a vice president, though right-wing members of Congress refused to vote for the proceedings.[78]