The home of Peru’s interim president, Dina Boluarte, was raided on the evening of Friday, March 30, as part of an investigation into illicit enrichment. The manager is suspected of not having declared a collection of luxury watches in her assets.
According to a police document, to which Agence France-Presse had access, around forty agents and magistrates were mobilized “with the aim of searching the house and seizing the Rolex watches”. This search was carried out as part of an investigation opened by the public prosecutor for suspicion of “illicit enrichment” and “omission to declare assets”.
Questioned on Saturday morning on RPP radio and television, Peruvian Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen denounced this search. “What happened is an intolerable attack on the dignity of the Presidency of the Republic and the nation it represents. These actions are disproportionate and unconstitutional,” he lamented.
Dina Boluarte claims to have “clean hands”
The affair broke out after a local news site, La Encerrona, published a series of photos on March 15 showing Ms. Boluarte sporting various luxury watches – around 15 in total – that were undeclared when she was both Minister of Social Inclusion and Vice-President, between July 2021 and December 2022. Among them, at least one eighteen-carat steel and rose gold Rolex, set with diamonds and estimated at $19,000 (approximately 17,565 euros).
After the investigation was broadcast, Ms. Boluarte, who benefits from presidential immunity, assured that she had “clean hands” and only owned a watch of a certain age, purchased with her savings. “I entered the Government Palace with clean hands and I will leave with clean hands, as I promised the Peruvian people,” she said. Boluarte became president in December 2022 after the impeachment and arrest of left-wing head of state Pedro Castillo, of whom she was vice president.
Furthermore, the president, aged 61, is already the subject of an investigation for “genocide, aggravated homicide and serious injury” after the death of more than 50 people during the two months of social unrest which accompanied her accession to the head of state.
