Recently, the famous American presenter Stephen Colbert joked about the low popularity of the president of Peru, Dina Boluarte, pointing out that even Madame Web – the character in the criticized Marvel film – was more accepted. Colbert’s figures are out of date: a survey by Datum Internacional for the newspaper Trade has just confirmed that Boluarte is still in free fall: barely 5% of Peruvians approve of his managementmaking her the head of state of the Andean country with the least support on record.
The president’s acceptance was never encouraging in her year and a half in office: since she succeeded Pedro Castillo in December 2022—after a frustrated self-coup—Boluarte has not been able to overcome the 20% hurdle. In recent months, her investiture was affected after a journalistic investigation by the podcast The Encerrona which revealed that he had worn a dozen high-end jewelry and watches that he had not declared to the State. Added to this is an alleged asset imbalance since his management in the Apurímac departmental club, the exposure of the weekly Hildebrandt in his Thirteen which accounts for his disappearance from the Palace in mid-2023 to retouch his face, the raid on his house, and the arrests of his brother Nicanor Boluarte and his personal lawyer, both accused of influence peddling.
Until Boluarte crossed the presidential band, the lowest point of approval of a Peruvian president had been for APRA leader Alan García, during his first government, in March 1989. It was a mandate marked by hyperinflation that It devalued the currency and the long lines that citizens stood in to obtain the essentials to survive. Another case was the 7% of the economist Alejandro Toledo in June 2004. Unlike several of his peers, Toledo did enjoy massive support in the beginning, but then he fell apart.
In this negative ranking he is followed by retired military officer Ollanta Humala with 14% in March 2016; the economist Pedro Pablo Kuczynski with 17% in March 2018 and the architect Fernando Belaunde with 18%, in his last months in office, in January 1985. Dina Boluarte has surpassed them all with 5% disapproval. A percentage that becomes even more negative in the southern region, where it obtains 3%. This agrees with the fact that the bulk of protesters killed during the protests against Boluarte come from the southern mountains of Peru.
“It’s a photo of the moment. The Government is working hard to reduce the numbers of violence and poverty. We are slowly emerging from malnutrition and anemia,” said the Minister of Women, Teresa Hernández, in defense of Boluarte. For her part, the Minister of Housing, Construction and Sanitation, Hania Pérez de Cuéllar, maintained that the very low support is a diagnosis of how the population is doing. “I think that 5% represents a lot. In general terms, the population is fed up, disappointed, tired. And there is a figure that draws attention: 9 out of 10 Peruvians consider that political crises directly affect their daily lives,” she said.
President Dina Boluarte maintains an elusive silence with the press: she has not spoken to the media since April 5, when she answered some questions about the preliminary investigation opened by the Attorney General’s Office for alleged illicit enrichment and bribery by the Rolexgate. On May 31, her 62nd birthday, presidential security locked up a group of journalists during a drill at the National Emergency Operations Center, preventing them from asking her questions.
One of the latest incidents that clearly reflects the moment of the Executive is the inauguration of a school in the Lima district of La Molina, where Boluarte attended surrounded by snipers who positioned themselves on the roofs of the premises. This Tuesday, Boluarte thanked Congress for granting him permission to travel to China in the coming weeks and close trade agreements. “We will continue to be the force that the country needs so that development is within the reach of all Peruvians,” said the president. The question arises: can his management of her fall any lower?
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