Peru’s accidental president fails to quell violent protests

LIMA, Peru —  It might be the world’s shortest political honeymoon.

Almost since the moment last week when Dina Boluarte took over from the ousted leader Pedro Castillo to become Peru’s first female president, she has appealed for calm and a chance to govern, insisting that the caretaker job came to her out of circumstance, not personal ambition.

In impoverished rural areas, though, fierce protests are showing no signs of abating amid anger over the removal of Castillo, who was Peru’s first president with Indigenous heritage. Long-overlooked peasant farmers and others remain unwilling to give up on their demand that he be released from prison, where he is being held while under investigation for rebellion.

Despite Boluarte’s own humble roots in the Andes, in her home region many are calling her a traitor.

“She is an opportunist. She has easily entered the government palace, but whose job was it?” Rolando Yupanqui said after the funeral of one of the at least 14 people who have died from injuries suffered in clashes with security forces. “People are upset here. Do you think that people go out on the streets for fun?”

Yupanqui said Castillo, who lived in a two-story adobe home before moving to the neo-Baroque presidential palace in the capital, Lima, had visited his community of Andahuaylas and “was just like us.” As for Boluarte, he said, “We’ve never met the lady.”

Boluarte took over for Castillo after the president sought to dissolve Congress ahead of lawmakers’ third attempt to impeach him. His vehicle was intercepted as he traveled through Lima’s streets on what prosecutors have said was an effort to reach the Mexican Embassy to request asylum.

Protesters are demanding Castillo’s freedom, Boluarte’s resignation and the immediate scheduling of elections to pick a new president and Congress before the scheduled 2026 vote. They have burned police stations, obstructed Peru’s main highway and stranded hundreds of foreign tourists by blocking access to airports.

The death count reached double digits Thursday as a judge approved a request from prosecutors to keep Castillo in custody for 18 months while they build their case against the former rural schoolteacher who surprised everyone by winning last year’s presidential runoff despite having zero political experience.

While Boluarte, under pressure, has endorsed the call for early elections, replacing her would require action by the political establishment, many of whom are in no rush to give up their own slice of power.

On Friday, Congress failed to muster enough votes to amend the constitution to pave the way for early elections, with leftist parties saying they would consent to such a plan only if a broader constitutional convention was also in the mix.

Meanwhile, at least two of Boluarte’s allies — the culture and education ministers — have resigned in protest over what they called an overly repressive police response to the protests.

The new president is having to negotiate the crisis with no base of support.

Like Castillo, Boluarte is not part of Peru’s political elite. She worked in the state agency that hands out identity documents before becoming vice president.

She grew up in an impoverished town in the Andes, speaks one of the country’s Indigenous languages, Quechua, and, a leftist like Castillo, promised to “fight for the nobodies.”

“The only thing I can tell you sisters and brothers [is] to keep calm. We want calm, we want peace, and within that calm and peace, let’s start talking,” Boluarte said this week in appealing to protesters, when she also conceded to one of their demands by signaling that elections could be held a year from now.

Talking, they don’t want. And they see differences between Castillo and Boluarte despite their similar backgrounds.

Castillo draped himself with symbols of Peru’s rural, Indigenous areas. He wore ponchos and sandals made of rubber. A traditional hat was practically glued to him.

Not only does Boluarte wear none of that, but she also has for years lived in Lima, which is in the eyes of rural communities a symbol of rich and conservative politicians.

Castillo’s loyalists saw her stand by his side for most of his 17-month administration. They hugged and shook hands at public events. She once even said she would quit if Castillo should be impeached.

“They see this as repudiation of who they are,” said Cynthia McClintock, a political science professor at George Washington University who has studied Peru extensively. “But if you asked them three months ago: ‘Is Castillo doing a good job?’ a lot of those folks would have said: ’No, he isn’t doing a good job.’”

Briceño reported from Andahuaylas.