Do we like Dina Boluarte?
Our score: 2 out of 10. She signed a trans toilet ban, a health decree trans advocates called degrading and an amnesty over a court order, with little independent good to set against it.
Dina Boluarte was born in Chalhuanca, in Peru's Apurímac region, and trained as a lawyer, with a master's in notarial and registry law. She worked at the national ID registry Reniec, sat on the Lima Bar Association's welfare board and ran the social inclusion ministry. She was vice president when Congress removed Pedro Castillo in December 2022, which made her Peru's first woman president.
Her presidency started with blood. More than 50 Castillo supporters died in a crackdown on protests, and an inquiry opened in January 2023 into her and some ministers on charges including genocide. Prosecutors still list her alleged responsibility for 49 deaths among their probes. After her removal she said she was “no soy responsable de ninguno de ellos” about the investigations, and none has produced a conviction that we could find.
Then came "Rolexgate". In 2024 the Guardian reported allegations that she owned luxury jewellery worth about US$502,700 on a salary of roughly US$3,320 a month, with the origin of three Rolexes and a Cartier bracelet allegedly undeclared. She denied wrongdoing and called it a plot. Congress finally removed her on 10 October 2025 on grounds of “permanent moral incapacity”, 122 of 130 votes, with her approval rating at 2 to 4 per cent.
Her record on accountability for atrocities is the second strike. In August 2025 she signed an amnesty for soldiers, police and militias accused of abuses between 1980 and 2000, despite an order from the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to suspend it. She said it honoured forces who fought terrorism, while Human Rights Watch called it “a betrayal of Peruvian victims”. UN experts said it could halt over 600 trials.
The recent stuff is a slow legal grind. She reappeared on 22 September 2026 at a Chinese embassy event, saying “Yo estoy feliz acá saludando al Gobierno chino”. Judges refused prosecutors' request for a 36-month travel ban in a money-laundering probe, finding insufficient evidence. An alleged embezzlement case had its criminal side archived, though a civil claim for repayment was allowed to go to trial. A prosecution allegation about a party bank account is still open.
The good stuff is thin and mostly from before the crash. She broke a glass ceiling as Peru's first woman president, and ran the social inclusion ministry before that. Her government's claims about expanding pension programs come from official statements, so we're not leaning on them. That's honestly the short list.