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Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra

Peru's parliament on 10 October 2025 impeached President Dina Boluarte, who refused to appear before Congress during a hearing. "I have approved the impeachment of the president," Parliament Speaker José Khairy said at the end of a very short session. A large majority of parliamentarians voted to remove Boluarte from the presidency, with 118 out of 122 members in favor of the impeachment measure. Boluarte has been widely criticized for her inability to curb crime, and widespread demonstrations have taken place across the country since the start of her term in December 2022.

The Speaker of Parliament will assume power in an acting capacity until general elections are held in April 2026.

Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra is Peru's sixth president since March 2018 and the first woman to hold the role. Born in Chalhuanca, Apurímac, she is a lawyer graduated from the San Martín de Porres Private University, with more than 18 years of practicing the profession. At that same university, she completed the Master's Degree in Notarial and Registry Law. She completed diplomas in the specialization of Administrative Law and Public Management, Constitutional Law, Constitutional Procedural Law and Human Rights. She is also an Extrajudicial Conciliator.

Boluarte speaks Spanish and Quechua. She was married to David Gómez Villasante, with the two having two sons; David Eduardo Gómez Boluarte and Daniel Felwig Gómez Boluarte.

Since 2007 she served as Senior Management Advisor at RENIEC and as of 2015 she was appointed Head in charge of the Registry Office of the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status in Surco - Higuereta. She was Director of Social Welfare at the Lima Bar Association, during whose management several changes were made for the benefit of lawyers.

In 2017, after the Democratic Elections of the Associates of the Apurímac Departmental Club, she was the First female President in more than 68 years of foundation, she also served as First Vice President of the Departmental Clubs of Peru, requesting a license from both institutions on the 28th. July 2021. With the Peru Libre Party she was a candidate for Mayor of Surquillo in 2018 and in 2020 she participated in the Extraordinary Parliamentary Elections without obtaining a congressional seat.

In the 2021 General Elections, she was elected as First Vice President of the Republic, in the second electoral round, in the formula headed by Professor Pedro Castillo Terrones for the Peru Libre Party. From July 29, 2021 to November 25, 2022, she assumed the position of Minister of Development and Social Inclusion.

After Pedro Castillo 's attempted self-coup , the Peruvian Congress advanced the session and approved the presidential vacancy by an overwhelming majority of 101 votes in favor, six against and ten abstentions. On 05 December 2022, the Subcommittee on Constitutional Accusations of Congress approved the filing of the constitutional complaint against Dina Boluarte. This report had a majority vote for the report of legislator Edgard Reymundo. The now president of the Republic was constitutionally denounced for having committed crimes of abuse of authority, omission of functional acts and incompatible negotiations. However, the report noted that she did not engage in any irregular action.

She rejected Pedro Castillo's decision for “perpetrating the breakdown of the constitutional order.” “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,” the vice president wrote on her social networks. Castillo did not have a political party, he does not have strategic support and evidently he did not have support from the Armed Forces.

Since December 7, 2022, in compliance with the Constitutional mandate, she was sworn in as President of the Republic, being the first woman to assume the highest Judiciary of the Country in the 201 years of Republican Life. The first female president of Peru had a unique opportunity to show the capabilities that women can have in a country that is sexist, misogynistic, discriminatory and where women have had so many difficulties in accessing the government. Boluarte was sworn in after Congress impeached Pedro Castillo just hours after he unsuccessfully attempted to dissolve the legislature. Castillo, who was detained by security forces, has said earlier that the impeachment motion approved by the opposition-led Congress "is part of the political game" against him.

During the 2021 Peruvian general election, she was part of Free Peru, a left-leaning and socialist-influenced party; after she was expelled from the party in 2022, she adopted more right-wing views and appointed conservative figures in her cabinet. Analysts described Boluarte's government as authoritarian, saying that she had allied with right wing and far-right groups in Congress following her ascension to the presidency. In April 2023, Boluarte declared a state of emergency in all border areas with Ecuador, Colombia, Brazil and Chile to increase "control of foreign citizens" in the country, blaming Venezuelan migrants for the crime in Peru.

President Boluarte assumes the reins of the country in the midst of a political crisis , which is also aggravated by a powerful drought that is hitting the Andes, a fifth wave of COVID infections. Peru has more than 217,000 deaths among 4.2 million infected since the start of the pandemic. And a bird flu had killed thousands of birds on the coast of the Pacific and threatened to spread to chicken and turkey farms. Boluarte woud attmpt to govern without her own parliamentary group to support her management, so she will have to build careful coalitions with members of Congress , which is the most discredited institution in the South American country.

After being sworn in, President Boluarte called for a political truce to install a “ government of national unity .” Then, looking at the legislators, she stated in her first speech that in her cabinet “ all democratic forces will be represented.” Cárdenas suggested caution and recalled that Congress is the most discredited institution in Peru "and that agreeing or having some arrangements with them can be counterproductive in the eyes of citizens." All polls agree on the unpopularity of Parliament . According to a November national poll by the Institute of Peruvian Studies (IEP), the Peruvian unicameral Congress has 86% disapproval and just 10% approval.

The Peruvian political crisis has been evident with six presidents in six years , since 2016. Three parliaments have used eight times a cause allowed by the constitution called " permanent moral incapacity ", with which two leaders were removed, including Castillo. Demonstrations against her rule have been fiercest in poor southern regions with large Indigenous populations who view Castillo, a former rural school teacher and union leader, as one of their own.

By April 2024 Boluarte was being investigated for suspected illegal enrichment and failing to declare her luxury timepieces -- a scandal dubbed "Rolexgate" by the media. On the eve of the vote, Attorney General Juan Villena announced an expansion of the probe into Boluarte's possession of a "$56,000 Cartier bracelet" and other jewelry valued at more than $500,000. Bank deposits of about $250,000 are also being investigated. Authorities raided Boluarte's home on 30 March 2024 as part of an ongoing corruption investigation into unreported luxury watches. A large team of investigators forced their way into the president's home with a sledgehammer, seemingly looking for "Rolex watches" that Boluarte had not publicly declared. The probe against her erupted in mid-March when a TV show spotlighted Boluarte wearing a Rolex watch that is worth up to $14,000 (€12,900) in Peru. At least two more watches were later revealed.

Peru's Congress on 04 April 2024 granted a crucial vote of confidence to President Dina Boluarte's new cabinet, allowing it to proceed in office amid a scandal over the leader's luxury Rolex collection. The vote, which lawmakers passed with 70 in favor, versus 38 against and 17 abstaining, gives the green light for Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen to move forward in his post, which he took up last month. It came during a turbulent week in which six ministers resigned after a police raid on Boluarte's home and offices, making it a key litmus test of support for the fragile government.

She initially promised to complete Castillo's term and govern until July 2026. In December 2022, Boluarte called on Congress to bring forward elections but parliament rejected the idea in several separate votes -- despite an initial vote in favor, which was subsequently never ratified. On 12 December 2023, following protests that broke out after the removal of Pedro Castillo, President Boluarte announced that she and Congress agreed to move the next general election from April 2026 to April 2024. It would be a miracle if Boluarte made it to the end of her term because no one wants to be an ally of an unpopular president when 2026 elections roll around.