Peru’s president says questions about her alleged plastic surgery are “biased”

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte on Monday broke her three-month silence from the press, calling journalists’ questions about who governed the country “biased” during an alleged plastic surgery she underwent in 2023.

Boluarte met with reporters after his official trip to China in late June, where he met with President Xi Jinping and managers of technology companies and shipping operators, including those from Cosco Shipping, a company building a giant port in the Pacific that will connect South America with Asia.

The president did not respond to two questions from two journalists about whether she had undergone plastic surgery in 2023 that would have forced her to be absent from office for 12 days, between June 28 and July 10, according to the weekly “Hildebrandt en sus trece” in May of this year.

“Excuse the smile, because we are talking about such important things as bringing technology from China to Peru, and these are the biased questions I am referring to, which do not help and do not generate interest in the population,” said Boluarte, 62, when asked about the aforementioned surgery.

When questioned by the press in May about the possible plastic surgery of the president, the palace spokesman, Fredy Hinojosa, said that he was not going to “comment on the acts that are part of the president’s private sphere.” For his part, Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzén, without answering the question specifically, indicated that Boluarte “has never been absent” from his activities.

On July 1, 2023, the presidential palace’s account on the social network X, formerly Twitter, showed a video showing Boluarte congratulating schoolchildren in an activity that actually took place on June 23, according to photos of that event published on that date by the presidential palace on its Flickr account. On June 29, 2023, the presidential palace’s account on X published a video from the previous day in which the president had decorated several police officers.

“Some of the press, but not all, sometimes repeat news that does not help in a positive way,” the president said during the conference, after recommending that journalists “repeat the good things that this government is doing.” On Wednesday, after announcing the construction of two hospitals, Boluarte told the press to help her repeat the information “24 hours a day, just like they do with biased news.”

The last time Boluarte answered questions from the local press was on April 5, when she called a press conference after testifying before the prosecutor’s office in an investigation against her for the use of Rolex luxury watches and undeclared jewelry among her assets, an obligation as a public servant.

On that occasion, the president said that the clocks Rolex watches he wore at official events were a free loan by a governor. After analyzing thousands of photographs of the presidential palace, local media outlet “La Encerrona” found that Boluarte wore jewelry without mentioning it in his mandatory sworn statements.

The prosecution does not believe the version of the loan of watches, and in May filed a complaint against the president before Parliament for bribery, a subtype of the crime of corruption, which occurs when an official accepts or requests, directly or indirectly, an undue donation or benefit to carry out an act of his or her office.

Boluarte also has another complaint to Parliament for qualified homicidefollowing the deaths of protesters in demonstrations against him during the months following the start of his government in December 2022, in which 50 civilians, including minors, died, according to the prosecution.

In Peru, a president cannot be arrested during his term in office. The two complaints filed by the prosecutors to Parliament can be evaluated and, if Congress decides, sent to the judiciary so that Boluarte can be tried at the end of her term, scheduled for July 28, 2026.

During the presidential silence, two local journalists’ associations complained about the treatment received by a group of journalists on May 31 during a public event. The Press and Society Institute said that bodyguards “locked journalists from various media outlets in a waiting room to prevent them from approaching” the president and “thus preventing them from asking her questions.”

During her visit to China, Boluarte was interviewed by state broadcaster CGTN. During the interview, the president seemed to be moved to tears when she spoke about minors and women.

“I want a country where children have a future, where poverty is reduced… where when women, girls and adolescents return home they are not assaulted,” she declared.

In a national survey by the Peruvian Institute of Studies conducted between July 1 and 5, the president’s popularity was 5% and her disapproval was 90%. Another 5% had no opinion.

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