The president of Peru is being investigated for alleged illicit enrichment for using a Rolex watch

2024-03-19 03:28:02

LIMA (AP) — The Peruvian prosecutor’s office began a preliminary investigation on Monday once morest President Dina Boluarte for the alleged crime of illicit enrichment following she admitted to being the owner of a Rolex luxury watch, which she has used more than two dozen times. in public for almost a year.

The public ministry added that it is also investigating Boluarte for the possible crime of failure to record a statement in documents. On Friday, the president evaded a question from the press regarding whether she had declared the watch on her list of assets, a duty of every public official intended to avoid possible illicit enrichment.

On that occasion, the president said that the Rolex watch – whose value at the brand’s authorized distributor in Peru reaches up to $14,000 – was from “yesterday”, “the fruit” of her “effort” and “work” since she was 18 years old. and that he used it “eventually.” She also asked the press “not to get into personal issues.”

Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén said angrily on Monday that it was “the last time” he answered a question from the press regarding the president’s luxury watch.

“The president has been, in the opinion of the speaker, sufficiently explicit and has responded fully regarding these journalistic reports… this is a personal issue that is not my place to address,” he stated.

Boluarte, a 61-year-old lawyer, has been photographed more than 20 times wearing a Rolex watch for almost a year, according to the freely accessible presidential photographic archive. The last time was in February, when she attended Peru’s highest-income neighborhood, San Isidro, at a ceremony for the incorporation of users for a pension for hundreds of thousands of extremely poor elderly people who receive $68 every two months.

The journalistic program “La Encerrona”, which is broadcast on the internet, stated last week that it reviewed more than 10,000 official photos from the government photographic archive since July 28, 2021, when Boluarte was sworn in as vice president and minister of social inclusion of the then president. Pedro Castillo. She also continued to review Boluarte’s photos following she was sworn in as president on December 7, 2022, replacing Castillo.

In the investigation, “La Encerrona” recorded that Boluarte used at least 14 watches, among which the Rolex stood out, which she began using in mid-2023. When she was a minister she received $8,136 a month in salary, but when she assumed the presidency His income dropped to $4,200 a month.

The president commented on Friday that she had entered “the government palace with clean hands and I will leave with clean hands… because it is in my DNA not to be corrupt.” In 2023, Boluarte recalled from the presidential palace that during the political campaign that brought her to power she “didn’t even have money for the tickets.”

Before becoming Minister of Social Inclusion, Boluarte was a modest official in a small district office of the national identification registry, where she worked since 2007.

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