In the early morning, police officers along with prosecutors entered Boluarte’s house, in Lima, and then searched the government palace, looking for the watches whose origin the president has not specified.
“We are going to carry out the inspection in the palace, to carry out the search according to the court order,” Colonel Harvey Colchado briefly told reporters before entering the presidential headquarters.
Colchado refrained from confirming whether they found the jewelry in the first raid, citing the “reserved” nature of the investigation.
According to a police document, regarding 40 agents and prosecutors participated in the procedure.
In the presidency since December 2022, Boluarte began to be investigated this month for the alleged crime of illicit enrichment and failure to record statements in public documents.
The break-in at the home “is for search and seizure purposes,” police said.
The intervention was authorized by the Supreme Court of Preparatory Investigation, presided over by Supreme Judge Juan Carlos Checkley, at the request of the Attorney General.
The raids were repudiated by Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén. “What has happened constitutes an intolerable attack on the dignity of the Presidency of the Republic and the Nation it represents. “These actions are disproportionate and unconstitutional,” he told reporters.
Investigation without trial
The search operations were carried out following the prosecutor’s office did not accept that the president rescheduled an appearance in which she had to show the watches and their purchase receipts.
If she were to be accused of illicit enrichment, Boluarte would only respond in a possible trial following July 2026, when her term ends, as established by the Constitution.
The scandal, however, might lead to a request for Boluarte’s vacancy (dismissal) from Congress, alleging “moral incapacity.”
For this to happen, the right-wing groups that control the unicameral parliament and are the president’s main support will have to support the minority left-wing groups in an alliance that is difficult to achieve.
According to the chief of staff, at the time of the raids Boluarte was in his residence inside the government palace.
The president will continue to “collaborate with the prosecution” and will give her statement when summoned, Adrianzén added on the X network.
“Clean hands”
The Rolex scandal broke out following a report by the journalistic program “La Encerrona” in mid-March.
The media revealed that Boluarte had worn several watches from the luxury brand in official activities since she became vice president of the government of former President Pedro Castillo and Minister of Development and Social Inclusion in 2021.
The period analyzed by the program runs until December 2022, the month in which he assumed the presidency.
After the report, Boluarte pointed out that it is a watch “from yesteryear” and that it is the product of his “effort”, since he has been working since he was 18 years old.
“I have entered the Government Palace with clean hands and I will leave with clean hands, as I have promised the Peruvian people,” Boluarte, 61, declared last week.
As a result of the scandal, the Comptroller’s Office of the Republic announced that it would once once more review the asset declarations that Boluarte presented in the last two years in search of any possible asset imbalance.
The prosecution is already investigating Boluarte for the alleged crimes of “genocide, qualified homicide and serious injuries”, in a case opened last year, for the death of more than 50 citizens “during social mobilizations between December 2022 and January 2023 ”.
Boluarte was questioned for the first time in March 2023 within the framework of that investigation.
His popularity does not exceed 10% in the polls and he lacks his own bench in a Congress controlled by the right and far-right.
Boluarte was vice president until she assumed the presidency on December 7, 2022 following Congress dismissed the leftist president Pedro Castillo for his attempt to dissolve Parliament, govern by decree, intervene in the judicial system and convene a Constituent Assembly.
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