Dina Boluarte
Who was Dina Boluarte?
Peru's first female president who assumed office in December 2022 after Pedro Castillo's impeachment and removal. She previously served as Vice President under Castillo.
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Dina Boluarte (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Dina Ercilia Boluarte Zegarra was born on 31 May 1962 in Chalhuanca, a small city in Peru's Apurímac region. She studied law at the University of San Martín de Porres and built a career as a lawyer and civil servant. Starting in 2007, she worked for about fifteen years at the National Registry of Identification and Civil Status, known as RENIEC. This role kept her mostly out of the national political scene until she joined Pedro Castillo's Free Peru movement, which brought her more attention.
Boluarte ran with Castillo in the 2021 presidential election and became first vice president while also serving as the minister at the Ministry of Development and Social Inclusion. She was officially part of Free Peru but never fully embraced its Marxist-Leninist ideas, which became important when the government fell apart. On 7 December 2022, when Castillo tried to dissolve Congress to avoid impeachment—a move not allowed by the Peruvian constitution—he was impeached. Congress removed him, he was arrested, and Boluarte was made president that same day, marking the first time a woman held the office in Peru.
Her presidency faced immediate challenges. Protests erupted across Peru, especially in southern regions with significant indigenous and rural populations, as many saw her rise to power as illegitimate. The government's tough response to protests led to casualties in Ayacucho and Juliaca, drawing criticism from human rights groups. The attorney general at the time, Patricia Benavides, began a formal investigation in January 2023 into whether Boluarte and her cabinet had committed genocide and aggravated homicide. Boluarte called the investigations politically motivated, and Benavides was later removed from her position.
During her presidency, Boluarte aligned with the right-wing congressional majority and had the backing of the Peruvian Armed Forces, even while describing her own politics as progressive and moderate leftist. Analysts widely described her time in office as conservative and antagonistic towards civil liberties. Her approval ratings dropped to historically low levels, hitting about 2 percent in March 2025, leading international media to label her the world's least popular leader. A bribery scandal in 2025, called Rolexgate because it involved luxury watches, put her position in jeopardy once more, but she survived another impeachment attempt. She was eventually removed from office on 10 October 2025.
Before Fame
Dina Boluarte grew up in Chalhuanca, a town in the Andean Apurímac region, one of Peru's poorer and more isolated areas. Her background shares common traits with many Peruvians from highland areas, where pursuing higher education requires determination and often involves moving to larger cities. She studied law at the University of San Martín de Porres in Lima, earning credentials that placed her in Peru's professional class, dealing with its complex public institutions.
After finishing her legal studies, Boluarte chose to build a career in civil administration instead of private legal practice or elected politics. Her long stint at RENIEC, the national identity and civil registry, gave her knowledge of state bureaucracy but kept her away from the unpredictable world of Peruvian electoral politics until later in life. Her association with Pedro Castillo's left-wing candidacy in 2021 changed her role from a civil servant to a national political figure.
Key Achievements
- Became the first woman to serve as President of Peru upon assuming office on 7 December 2022.
- Survived multiple impeachment proceedings in the Peruvian Congress, including one triggered by the Rolexgate bribery scandal in 2025.
- Maintained governmental stability and congressional support for over two years despite historic levels of public disapproval and ongoing criminal investigations.
- Served as Minister of Development and Social Inclusion under President Pedro Castillo, overseeing social welfare programs targeted at Peru's most vulnerable populations.
- Built a career in public administration spanning more than a decade at RENIEC before transitioning into elected national office.
Did You Know?
- 01.Boluarte's approval rating fell to approximately 2 percent in March 2025, a figure widely cited as a historic low for any sitting head of government globally at that time.
- 02.She worked at Peru's national civil registry, RENIEC, for approximately fifteen years before entering national politics as a vice-presidential candidate.
- 03.A scandal dubbed 'Rolexgate' emerged in 2025, centered on allegations that she had received expensive luxury watches, and it triggered yet another congressional impeachment attempt against her.
- 04.Despite being a registered member of the Marxist-Leninist Free Peru party, she governed in alignment with the right-wing congressional bloc and with the backing of the military after taking power.
- 05.The attorney general opened a genocide investigation against her in January 2023, one of the most serious criminal investigations ever launched against a sitting Peruvian president.