Peruvian law students from the Facultad de Derecho y Ciencias Políticas, Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco are reporting for JURIST on law-related events in or affecting Perú. All of them are from CIED (Centro de Investigación de los Estudiantes de Derecho), a student research center in UNSAAC’s faculty of law dedicated to spreading legal information and improving legal culture through study and research, promoting critical and reflective debate to contribute to the development of the country. Vanesa Escobar Marcavillaca is a law graduate from UNSAAC and an extraordinary member of CIED. She files this dispatch from Cusco.

According to the last survey by Peruvian public opinion research firm Datum, just 3% of the Peruvian population approves of the government of President Dina Boluarte. According to the American news site The Intercept, this makes Boluarte the most unpopular president in the world.

But why? To get to the reasons behind this ranking, we need to go back to the moment when Boluarte assumed the presidency of Peru.

Two years ago, when Pedro Castillo Terrones was the president of Peru, he tried to dissolve the Congress as a reaction to its attempt to remove him from the office. This strategy was not effective; Castillo was immediately removed, and the police captured him when he tried to escape. After the chaos, Dina Boluarte assumed the presidency of Peru, as she was the only available vice president in Castillo‘s party.

At the beginning, Boluarte appeared as democracy’s savior. However, as time went by, she has proved to be the opposite.

Since the beginning of her government, some people let her know they didn’t want her in the presidency, not just because of her close relationship with Pedro Castillo, but also because of the incompetence her party showed all the way along. Despite all this, Dina refused to give up power. Starting in late 2022, people started to show their disagreement by protesting in the streets.

In Peru, protesting has traditionally been a very effective measure against politicians and policies people consider harmful. But not this time.

Instead of engaging in dialogue, the immediate response from Boluarte’s government was to unleash repressive violence, to the point that Peruvians remember this period as one of the worst in the country’s history, because of all the cruelty the government has showed against people. As a result, more than 60 people died, with nobody held accountable for the murders so far.

The rest of Dina Boluarte’s tenure in government has been little better, involving the president in serious questions that, until today, haven’t been responded to in a satisfying way. This is not only because Dina Boluarte is being accused of supporting the Parliament’s illegitimate acts (which also was qualified as criminal-supportive), but also because she’s directly related with criminality.

Previously, we said that only Dina Boluarte was available to assume the presidency when Pedro Castillo was removed.  The reason behind this is significant. Originally, Vladimir Cerrón, the leader of Castillo’s party, was slated to be second vice president. However, Cerrón was sentenced to more than three years in prison for corruption crimes. However, Cerrón escaped and is now a fugitive of justice.

Now Dina Boluarte was accused of collaborating with Cerron’s escape following an investigation by Punto Final, a Peruvian journalistic program. In the report, Punto Final revealed that, on February 24, 2024, the official vehicle of the Presidency, known as “El Cofre,” was spotted at Mikonos, a condominium located in Lima’s south — the same place where fugitive Vladimir Cerron was believed to be hiding, and where police made an attempted capture operation just one month before.

Also, the videos reveal that El Cofre was not alone at the beginning, but was accompanied by another official government car belonging to Boluarte’s Interior Minister Juan José Santivañez, as well as two other police cars. Then, the next day, El Cofre returned alone.

Additionally, an audio emerged in which Santivañez could be heard talking to, presumably, a police officer and a Santivañez friend, Captain Junior Izquierdo, confirming that not only The Cofre was used to help Vladimir Cerrón escape, but also affirming he is supported by the police.

To this day, President Dina Boluarte has been unable to provide a logical explanation for this incident, and instead, the press has been directly attacked by the president for seeking answers to this and the myriad problems Peru is facing today, such as:

• the high levels of criminality, which can’t be solved by this government due to the lack of politics we have, but also because all the laws Parliament has been publishing support criminal activity, with the consent of the President.
• the patrimonial imbalance of the president (over 400,000.00 soles) and questions about the origin of her jewelry and the famous Rolex.
• the implication of her brother, Nicanor Boluarte, in a criminal investigation, and her participation to desactivate the police commission that was investigating this case. And also, her role in Nicanor escape.
• the scandal of Qali Warma, the state program to feed children in poverty and extreme poverty, which provided food in poor condition (actually it was dog food), stemming from contracts managed by Boluarte when she held the position of State Minister in 2022.
• the constant repression of people’s protests with high levels of violence, resulting in lots of deaths, for which she does not take responsibility, even when this is the only way for people to claim their rights.

The list could continue.

This is why Dina has been positioned as the most unpopular president of the world, with just 3% of the population approving her government.

Unfortunately, the crisis Peru is facing is one of the worst we have ever experienced, with people feeling insecure and fearful everyday. It seems that all powers have allied to collaborate with criminals. Even worse, it seems that the government itself is the most dangerous criminal of all.