Police and prosecutors in Peru carried out a surprise raid on President Dina Bolluarte’s home and presidential palace early Saturday as part of an “illegal enrichment” investigation into news reports that she had been seen wearing Rolex watches since taking office her.
The raid, which came as Peruvians celebrated Holy Week, shocked many people, even in a country that has grown accustomed over the past two decades to politicians being investigated for alleged corruption.
Before midnight on Good Friday, police used a battering ram to enter Ms. Boluarte’s home in Lima, according to Latina Noticias live coverage. Prosecutors and police then searched Ms. Boluarte’s office and residence in the presidential palace.
The president was a no-show this week for a scheduled appointment with prosecutors to show them three Rolex watches she had been wearing and explain how she got them. She also refused to allow them to enter her home to execute a search warrant, according to Attorney General Juan Villena, who told lawmakers that her refusal was “a clear sign of rebellion.”
The investigation into Ms. Boluarte began on March 18 after the online news program La Encerrona revealed that she had begun wearing increasingly expensive watches, including at least one Rolex, since taking office in December 2022. Prosecutors they suspect that he violated the country’s laws on illicit enrichment and failure to declare assets. In Peru, elected officials must report to the government any assets worth more than 10,300 soles, or about $2,774, and disclose any gifts received from third parties.
Local news outlets have since reported that Ms. Boluarte has worn three more Rolex watches, as well as a $50,000 Cartier bracelet, and that banking authorities found about $300,000 in deposits of unknown origin in her personal accounts before she took office.
The Rolex watch model he allegedly wore costs at least $14,000, according to La Encerrona.
Ms Boluarte denied wrongdoing but also refused to publicly explain the origins of the Rolexes, saying only that the first Rolex watch to attract attention was an item “from a long time ago”. “It’s in my DNA not to be corrupt,” she told reporters on March 15. “What I have is the fruit of my efforts and my work.”
In a televised address on Saturday, Ms Boluarte, flanked by her cabinet ministers, accused news agencies of creating “smoke screens” fueling “chaos and uncertainty”, and called on Peruvians to march in defense of democracy.
“I am an honest woman. I entered the presidential palace with clean hands and this is how I will leave in 2026,” he said. “Let us march today for truth and idealism and embrace each other with one heart.”
Ms. Boluarte’s surrogates have offered other explanations. Hania Pérez de Cuéllar, her housing minister and former head of the agency that protects intellectual property, suggested the Rolex may have been fake and admitted she herself bought a fake luxury watch on a trip to China. A lawyer for Ms. Boluarte said early Saturday that she may have received the watches from an “admirer” who wished to remain anonymous.
Justice Minister Eduardo Arana called the raids “unconstitutional” and “disproportionate” and appealed to lawmakers for “unity” in the face of what he described as an attempt to destabilize the government.
“Justice is being politicized,” he said at a press conference with other ministers. “The goal is the rupture of the government, democracy and institutionalism.” He refused to answer questions from reporters.
It was unclear whether the Rolex controversy would cost Ms. Boluarte key support.
The interior ministry, which controls the national police, expressed its support, saying in a post on X that it rejected “acts that affect the country’s development, covered with questionable judicial orders.”
“We confirm our commitment to continue working for the internal order of the country,” the ministry wrote.
Some of Ms. Boluarte’s allies on the right accused her of letting the situation escalate. And once-friendly news outlets have taken a more critical stance, a sign that patience may be wearing thin among its supporters.
The Rolex watch controversy comes as the economy slumps and hunger rises in Peru, a country that won international praise for consolidating its democracy and the rise of mining-fueled commodities to lift millions of its citizens out of poverty.
Some political observers predicted the scandal was the beginning of the end for Ms. Boluarte’s government and was likely to open the door to a new round of political turmoil in a country that has had six presidents in the past six years.
“Dina’s government is over,” Peruvian political scientist Juan de la Puente told X. “The sight is sad, as it happened with Castillo. Both underestimated the highest office.”
Investigative news program Cuarto Poder reported that Ms. Boluarte wore a Rolex model worth more than $18,000 during an event in February to address poverty in vulnerable populations.
According to a poll in January, Ms. Boluarte is the least popular president in Latin America, with an approval rating of just nine percent.
A former civil servant turned politician for a Marxist party, he served as President Pedro Castillo’s vice president. He succeeded him after his impeachment in 2022 and his arrest for announcing he was taking over Congress and the judiciary.
Ms. Boluarte’s decision to replace Mr. Castillo rather than resign — as she once promised to do to pave the way for new elections — sparked violent protests against her government in late 2022 and early 2023, with 49 citizens to be killed in police and military crackdowns. . He is currently under investigation by national human rights prosecutors.
Ms. Boluarte is also the co-author of a book on human rights law that is under investigation for plagiarism.
Before taking office, Ms. Boluarte earned $1,100 a month as a bureaucrat at the government agency that produces identity documents. As a minister, he earned about $8,000 a month and as president he earns just over $4,000 a month.
As authorities removed boxes from Ms. Boluarte’s residences, a lawmaker announced that her former leftist party had secured enough support for a no-confidence motion in Congress, where Ms. Boluarte has relied on a coalition of right-wing and centrist parties. survive.
Although only 26 votes are needed for a motion of censure, 87 votes — or two-thirds of lawmakers — are needed for passage.
Since 2016, when ongoing corruption scandals began to ignite high-stakes political battles in Peru, two presidents, Mr. Castillo and Martín Vizcarra, have been impeached. One, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resigned to avoid a vote of no confidence. All but one of Peru’s living former presidents, Francisco Sagasti, who ruled from late 2020 to mid-2021, have been investigated for corruption or human rights abuses. In 2019, former president Alan Garcia committed suicide to avoid arrest.
Lawmaker Alejandro Muñante, of the far-right Renovación Popular party, told X that Ms Boluarte had done herself no favors with her silence in recent weeks.
“Silence has cost the president dearly and will continue to do so if he continues to choose this terrible defense strategy,” Mr Muñante said. “Boluarte still has time to clear it up. If he doesn’t, a new succession wouldn’t be crazy at all.”
