Police Raid Peruvian President’s Home, Looking for Rolex Watches

The police and prosecutors in Peru carried out a shock raid on the residence of President Dina Boluarte and the presidential palace early Saturday as a part of an “illegal enrichment” investigation into information reviews that she had been seen carrying Rolex watches since taking workplace.

The raid, which got here as Peruvians had been celebrating the Holy Week vacation, shocked many individuals, even in a rustic that has grown accustomed over the previous twenty years to politicians investigated for alleged corruption.

Earlier than midnight on Good Friday, the police used a battering ram to power their manner into Ms. Boluarte’s residence in Lima, in accordance with reside protection on Latina Noticias. Prosecutors and the police then searched Ms. Boluarte’s workplace and residence within the presidential palace.

The president had failed to seem this week for a scheduled appointment with prosecutors to indicate them three Rolex watches she has worn and to elucidate how she obtained them. She additionally refused to permit them into her home to execute a search warrant, in accordance with Legal professional Normal Juan Villena, who instructed lawmakers that her refusal was “a transparent indicator of revolt.”

The investigation into Ms. Boluarte started on March 18, after the net information program La Encerrona revealed that she had began carrying more and more costly watches, together with at the very least one Rolex, since taking workplace in December 2022. Prosecutors suspect her of violating the nation’s legal guidelines in opposition to illegal enrichment and failing to declare property. In Peru, the elected authorities should report back to the federal government any property price greater than 10,300 soles, or about $2,774, and disclose any items obtained from third events.

Native information retailers have since reported that Ms. Boluarte has worn three different Rolex watches, in addition to a $50,000 Cartier bracelet, and that banking authorities have detected about $300,000 in deposits of unknown origin made to her private accounts earlier than she took workplace.

The mannequin of Rolex watches she has reportedly worn prices at the very least $14,000, in accordance with La Encerrona.

Ms. Boluarte has denied wrongdoing, however she has additionally declined to elucidate the origin of the Rolexes publicly, saying solely that the primary Rolex watch that drew consideration was an merchandise “from way back.” “It’s in my DNA to not be corrupt,” she instructed journalists on March 15. “What I’ve is the fruit of my efforts and my work.”

In a televised tackle on Saturday, Ms. Boluarte, flanked by ministers in her cupboard, blamed information retailers for creating “smoke screens” that gasoline “chaos and uncertainty,” She known as on Peruvians to march to defend democracy.

“I’m an trustworthy lady. I entered the presidential palace with clear arms, and that’s how I’ll go away in 2026,” she stated. “Let’s march in the present day for fact and idealism and hug each other with a single coronary heart.”

Ms. Boluarte’s surrogates have prompt different explanations. Hania Pérez de Cuéllar, her housing minister and the previous head of the company that protects mental property, prompt that the Rolex is likely to be pretend and admitted to purchasing a counterfeit luxurious watch herself on a visit to China. A lawyer for Ms. Boluarte stated early Saturday that she may need obtained the watches from a “fan” who needed to stay nameless.

Justice Minister Eduardo Arana known as the raids “unconstitutional” and “disproportionate” and appealed to lawmakers for “unity” within the face of what he described as an try and destabilize the federal government.

“Justice is being politicized,” he stated in a information convention with different ministers. “The aim is to rupture the federal government, democracy and institutionality.” He declined to reply questions from journalists.

It was unclear whether or not the Rolex controversy would price Ms. Boluarte key help.

The inside ministry, which controls the nationwide police, expressed help for her, saying in a submit on X that it rejected “acts that have an effect on the event of the nation, cloaked in questionable judicial provisions.”

“We reaffirm our dedication to proceed working for the nation’s inner order,” the ministry wrote.

A few of Ms. Boluarte’s allies on the suitable blamed her for letting the scenario escalate. And once-friendly information retailers have adopted a extra important stance, an indication that endurance could also be carrying skinny amongst her supporters.

The controversy over the Rolex watches comes because the financial system is flagging and starvation is rising in Peru, a rustic that received worldwide reward for consolidating its democracy and using a mining-fueled commodities increase to tug thousands and thousands of its residents from poverty. The investigative information program Cuarto Poder reported that Ms. Boluarte wore one Rolex mannequin price greater than $18,000 at an occasion in February to deal with poverty in weak populations.

Some political observers stated the scandal might open the door to a brand new spherical of political turmoil in a rustic that has had six presidents previously six years.

Each manner out of the present disaster appeared to result in “a lifeless finish,” the Peruvian political scientist Gonzalo Banda stated in an interview. If she remained in workplace, belief in democracy was prone to additional diminish, with unpredictable penalties, he stated.

“In Peru, you might have a political class not responding to residents, so residents develop extra distant from politics, extra disaffected from politics, extra fed up with politics, which doesn’t imply they’re not paying consideration,” Mr. Banda stated. “All that discontent goes to be unleashed in a brand new election.”

In line with a ballot in January, Ms. Boluarte is the least fashionable president in Latin America, with an approval ranking of simply 9 %.

A former civil servant turned politician for a Marxist get together, she served as President Pedro Castillo’s vp. She succeeded him after he was impeached in 2022 and arrested for saying that he was taking up Congress and the justice system.

Ms. Boluarte’s determination to switch Mr. Castillo as an alternative of resigning — as she as soon as promised she would do to make manner for brand spanking new elections — set off violent protests in opposition to her authorities in late 2022 and early 2023, with 49 civilians killed in police and army crackdowns. She is at the moment below investigation by nationwide human rights prosecutors.

Ms. Boluarte can also be the co-author of a e-book on human rights legislation that’s below investigation for plagiarism.

Earlier than taking workplace, Ms. Boluarte earned $1,100 monthly as a bureaucrat with the state company that produces id paperwork. As minister, she earned about $8,000 monthly, and as president makes slightly over $4,000 monthly.

Because the authorities retrieved packing containers from Ms. Boluarte’s residences, a lawmaker introduced that her former leftist get together had secured enough help for a movement for an impeachment vote in Congress, the place Ms. Boluarte has relied on a coalition of right-wing and centrist events to outlive.

Though solely 26 votes are required for a movement to question, 87 votes — or two-thirds of the legislators — are wanted for passage.

Since 2016, when back-to-back corruption scandals began fueling high-stakes political battles in Peru, two presidents, Mr. Castillo and Martín Vizcarra, have been impeached. One, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, resigned to keep away from an impeachment vote. All residing former Peruvian presidents besides one, Francisco Sagasti, who ruled from late 2020 to mid-2021, have come below investigation for corruption or human rights abuses. In 2019, the previous president Alan García killed himself to keep away from arrest.

Congressman Alejandro Muñante, of the far-right Renovación Fashionable get together, stated on X that Ms. Boluarte had completed herself no favors together with her silence in latest weeks.

“Staying quiet has price the president so much and can proceed to take action if she retains choosing this horrible protection technique,” Mr. Muñante stated. “Boluarte nonetheless has time to clear this up. If she doesn’t, a brand new succession wouldn’t be in any respect loopy.”