Lima — Dina Boluarte has become the first woman to hold the office of president of Peru after Pedro Castillo was removed from office by Congress, paving the way for the former vice president to step into the role.
Earlier, Congress had cast 101 votes in favor to remove Castillo as president of the country, a position he had held since July 28, 2021. The move came after Castillo, who faced an impeachment vote in the chamber on Wednesday, dissolved Congress, an act which was deemed unconstitutional.
Castillo is now under arrest by the Peruvian National Police.
After Castillo’s message to the nation, the vice president made a statement through her Twitter account rejecting the decision of Pedro Castillo to perpetrate the breakdown of the constitutional order with the dissolution of Congress.
“This is a coup d’état that aggravates the political and institutional crisis that Peruvian society will have to overcome with strict adherence to the law,” Boluarte tweeted.
In her speech to the nation after being sworn-in as president, Boluarte called for a political truce to install a government of national unity.
“This high responsibility must be assumed for all and by all. I could not ask that my government not be supervised, nor that the decisions to be taken not be scrutinized. What I am asking for is a term, valuable time to rescue the country from corruption and misgovernment,” she stated.
In a tweet, Peru’s Congress announced that Boluarte had been sworn-in as president:
Who is Dina Boluarte?
Dina Boluarte, was part of the campaign team of the Perú Libre party with which Pedro Castillo was elected in June 2021, and between July 28 of last year until November of this year she held the position of Minister of Inclusion and Social Development.
Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra distanced herself from the Perú Libre party, as did former president Castillo, but kept her position as vice president alongside him.
She holds a master’s degree in notary and registry Law of the San Martin de Porres University, and previously worked as legal advisor to the senior management and head of Peru’s registry office (Reniec).
Boluarte was president of the department of Apurimac, her native region, and was a mayoral candidate for Surquillo in 2018, while in 2020 she ran for congressional elections, but without winning a seat.
Recently, the sub-commission of constitutional accusations of Congress approved a vote recommending the filing of complaints against Boluarte for alleged constitutional infringement, with 13 votes in favor.
José Williams, president of Congress, swore-in President Boluarte and declared that Congress had recovered its institutional role.
“I must thank the institutions that condemned the coup d’état,” Williams said.
