Dina Boluarte, de facto president of Peru. Photo: El Comercio.
By Anahí Durand Guevara – Jul 11, 2025
In recent months, Peru’s coup President Dina Boluarte has been in the news for seemingly contradictory reasons: having the lowest citizen approval rating in the world and, at the same time, receiving one of the highest salaries in Latin America, and nothing affecting her continuity in office.
In May, the polling organization IPSOS revealed that Dina Boluarte had 0% citizen approval. “In the whole world I do not know of such a poor record,” said Alfredo Torres, director of IPSOS, when asked about this situation. The director also emphasized that Boluarte’s approval represented a “historical record” because in the 30 years that the pollster has been conducting surveys it has never found such a high trend of disapproval, sustained for so many months.
Citizen rejection is also manifested in the streets. In December 2022, when the Congress removed Pedro Castillo and appointed Boluarte as president, she faced massive protests that paralyzed the country and were brutally repressed. If at the beginning the population rejected her for betraying her promise to resign if Castillo was removed from office, the rejection grew following multiple massacres, the accusations of corruption, the increase in crime, and her ostentatious incapacity and frivolity. Fearing popular rejection, Dina Boluarte rarely leaves the presidential palace and is always guarded by numerous police and military personnel. Even so, Boluarte has faced tense moments such as when the mother of one of the minors killed by the repression in Ayacucho pulled her hair while people shouted “usurper” and “murderer.”
Despite this overwhelming disapproval, at the beginning of July the official newspaper El Peruano published the decree formalizing Dina Boluarte’s salary increase to 35,500 soles per month (US$9,800). This 122% salary increase made Boluarte the second highest paid head of state in South America, after Uruguay. But for Boluarte it was not enough to earn the equivalent of thirty-four minimum monthly salaries (the minimum salary in Peru is 1,134 soles per month), and she got a Platinium card with no spending limit for food and clothing purchases.
With more than three years at the helm of the presidency, Boluarte faces seven public charges for crimes against humanity (50 killed and 1200 wounded during the protests), corruption for the Rolex Case (where she ratified regional budgets in exchange of high-end watches) and abandonment of office for being absent from her functions to undergo cosmetic surgery… And yet, paradoxically, Dina Boluarte remains stable in office. How can this contradiction be explained? How can such a nefarious character be sustained?
Peru’s President Boluarte Sets Record as World’s Most Unpopular President
The immovable Dina Boluarte and the ruling coup coalition
To understand Boluarte’s stability despite such hatred from the people, political incompetence, and personal frivolity, it is necessary to take into account the coup coalition that swore her in as president. Those who put her in office give her stability and maintain her because she is totally functional to their interests.
Dina Boluarte’s main support has been and is the Congress. In a country where congress members frequently decide the removal of presidents, it is critical to have the support of the Parliament. Congress was the spearhead in the coup that ousted Pedro Castillo and it is the body that raised Boluarte to the presidency. There are no left-wing or right-wing blocs here, only parliamentarians interested in preserving their share of power and safeguarding corporate interests. That is why they massively voted against early elections and have blocked any possibility of presidential vacancy irrespective of the fact that the citizens also massively disapprove of the Congress (95%). Dina Boluarte is totally subordinated to the Parliament, has doubled its budget, and supports all its legislative initiatives.
At the same time, political parties with significant representation in Congress govern with Boluarte. The parties that lost the presidential election and whose parliamentary blocs boycotted Pedro Castillo, occupy places in key ministries: Alianza para el Progreso (APP) has the ministries of Health and Housing, Fujimorismo has Economy and Energy. Special mention should be made of Peru Libre of the Marxist-Leninist politician Vladimir Cerrón, a party that shares the Congressional board of directors with Fujimorism and the ultra-right.
Corporate elites also support Boluarte because she has consistently yielded to their policy demands, including new tax exemptions for agro-exporters, pension fund legislation, and incentives for mining investment. The armed forces and police have also fulfilled their role as guarantors of the regime. In fact, they were key to repress the protests with blood and fire. In return, they have been rewarded with increased military spending and an amnesty law for those implicated in crimes against humanity. And of course, let us not forget the United States, which is very proactive for the international support that this illegitimate and human rights violating government needs.
The Peruvian people remain excluded from this distribution of power and resources. With general elections just ten months away, Peruvians will choose their president and congressional representatives. While disaffection and disenchantment with a system that has ceased to respect citizens’ will may dominate, the elections could equally serve as an opportunity to expel this political class and forge a new path toward greater popular inclusion, resuming what was cut short on December 7, 2022..
Anahí Durand Guevara is a Peruvian sociologist. She holds a PhD in Political and Social Sciences from the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). Currently she is a research professor at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the Universidad Nacional Mayor de San Marcos de Lima. She has published books and articles on social movements, political representation, women’s participation and indigenous peoples. She was former minister of Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru in Pedro Castillo’s government.
Translation: Orinoco Tribune
OT/SC/DZ
