MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Boluarte becomes Peru's first-ever female president

The 60-year-old Boluarte had been Castillo's running mate

Dina Boluarte Wednesday became the first woman ever to hold the position of President of Peru after she was sworn in following the impeachment and arrest of Pedro Castillo Terrones for trying to stage a coup d'état.

 Boluarte, who was Castillo's vice-president, swore “by God, the homeland and the Constitution” and pledged to defend national sovereignty and to comply with and enforce the Constitution and the laws of the country.

“Before being a politician, I am a Peruvian citizen and a mother, who is fully aware of the high responsibility that history places on my shoulders,” Boluarte said before admitting that what her running mate had done was a coup d'état, for which she called for “a broad process of dialogue among all the national political forces.”

The ceremony, held in the legislative chamber, was attended by congressmen and other high authorities of the State powers and the Armed Forces, who were applauded for having announced that they would respect the constitutional succession in the country when Congress Speaker José Williams announced that, due to Castillo's dismissal, the presidential succession was activated.

At the beginning of the ceremony, and according to protocol, Williams received the presidential sash for a few minutes and then invited Boluarte to enter the chamber to take the oath of office.

Immediately after Castillo announced he was dissolving Parliament, Boluarte posted on Twitter that she opposed the “breakdown of the constitutional order with the closing of Congress.”

“This is a coup d'état that aggravates the political and institutional crisis that Peruvian society will have to overcome with strict adherence to the law,” she had added.

Boluarte, 60, defines herself as a person of the “democratic left,” who called for “the broadest unity of all Peruvians” because “it is up to us to talk, to dialogue, to reach an agreement, something as simple as so impracticable in the last months.”

Originally from Chalhuanca, Apurimac, Boluarte is a graduated lawyer from the University of San Martin de Porres and has a Master's Degree in Notary and Registry Law from the same university.

Boluarte had become vice-president on July 28, 2021. She was also Minister of Development and Social Inclusion under Castillo, but she left that position on Nov. 25 last.

Earlier this year, Boluarte had been expelled from the Peru Libre party over disagreements with the political group's leaders. She is now considered never to have embraced the same ideals.

“Internally I have disagreed with some aspects of Peru Libre's ideology such as the generalized nationalization of the economy or the intervention in the media. However, I have not had the opportunity to debate these points of view internally,” she said after being expelled.

“Like thousands of Peruvian men and women, I am of the left, but of the democratic left, not totalitarian or sectarian, which allows divergence and criticism and where there are no infallible or untouchable leaders,” Boluarte had explained.

Per Peru's Constitution, she is now due to run the country until July 28, 2026, but it is already rumored that she might call for early elections.