LIMA.- The attorney general of PeruJuan Carlos Villena, denounced before Congress the President Dina Boluarte for the alleged crime of bribery within the framework of the luxury watch scandal known as “Rolexgate.”
“The Attorney General’s Office, through the Area of Illicit Enrichment and Constitutional Complaints, filed a constitutional complaint against Dina Boluarte, as the alleged perpetrator of the crime of improper passive bribery, to the detriment of the State,” the Public Ministry said in a statement. social network
The complaint, delivered to Congress, is the previous step to a political pre-trial, which must subsequently be evaluated by the Judiciary when her term ends.
For the prosecution, the facts underlying the complaint refer to “three Rolex watches that the president had received as a donation from the regional governor of Ayacucho, Wilfredo Oscorima, (along with) a pair of gold hoop earrings with diamonds and a Bangle bracelet with 94” diamonds.
The president has been investigated in “Rolexgate” since March for “improper passive bribery,” a crime that involves receiving improper benefits from officials. Also for alleged illicit enrichment and failure to record assets in documents.
In Parliament, controlled by right-wing groups related to Boluarte, the complaint must be evaluated by a subcommittee of constitutional accusations before being debated by the Plenary in a procedure without a specific deadline.
Government denounces persecution
The chief of staff, Gustavo Adrianzén, considered that there is clear fiscal persecution against the president, which affects the daily work she does for the benefit of the country.
“This is nothing more than an example of the systematic persecution in fiscal matters that is carried out on the president in an improper, unconstitutional and illegal manner,” Adrianzén told television channel N.
Boluarte, who will turn 62 this Friday, can only be brought to trial at the end of her term, in July 2026, as established by the constitution.
With his case, there are six presidents implicated in corruption cases in the last quarter of a century. In just eight years, Peru has had six leaders, in the midst of the worst wave of instability in its modern history.
Rolexgate, a headache
The complaint is the second that the prosecutor’s office presents against Boluarte after last November it accused her of the alleged crime of homicide, as responsible for the repression of the protests that left more than 50 deaths after she came to power on December 7, 2022. .
In his first statement before the prosecution, Boluarte indicated that the Rolex watches were given to him on loan by his friend the regional governor of Ayacucho.
“I must admit that it was a mistake to accept those watches from my friend Wilfredo Oscorima on loan,” Boluarte declared.
The investigations into “the alleged commission of the crime of illicit enrichment and failure to record a statement in documents” began on March 18, following a journalistic complaint from the digital media La Encerrona.
“I have entered the Government Palace with clean hands and I will leave with clean hands, as I have promised the Peruvian people,” Peru’s first female president said in April.
The information revealed that he used several rolex watches in official activities since she became vice president of the government of former leftist president Pedro Castillo and Minister of Development and Social Inclusion in 2021.
Weak and unpopular government
The president, whose disapproval reaches 88%, according to a recent Ipsos survey, lacks her own bench or party, so the support of conservative forces is key so that she can finish her term in July 2026.
“We are going to continue walking until July 28, 2026! Because here the people chose a presidential formula and according to the Constitution that must be respected,” he said a week ago in a public event, ruling out that he would resign due to the investigations.
In April, the government surprisingly dissolved the police unit that supported the team of anti-corruption prosecutors that raided Boluarte’s home and the presidential office in March in search of the jewelry.
Source: With information from AFP
