President interrogated for hours in ‘Rolexgate’ probe

LIMA (AP):

Peruvian President Dina Boluarte was interrogated by prosecutors for more than three hours Friday as authorities investigate whether she illegally received hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, luxury watches and jewellery.

Prosecutors have been investigating the highly unpopular leader on charges of illicit enrichment and failures to declare assets. Boluarte rolled up to the building Friday morning in a car with tinted windows surrounded by armed police, passing throngs of journalists and a number of protesters.

Scuffles broke out later in the morning as opposing protesters gathered near the building. While a number of protesters came to defend Boluarte carrying a sign reading “Dina resist”, others blocks away from the presidential palace railed against the embattled leader, carrying brooms and shouting “get them all out!” They were blocked by riot police, who drove them away with tear gas.

The unfolding scandal is the latest turmoil that has wracked Peru’s political system in recent years. As of Friday morning, Boluarte had given no public indications about what she planned to tell authorities, but prosecutors confirmed that the president was testifying to them.

The probe began in mid-March after a digital news programme La Encerrona spotlighted Boluarte wearing a Rolex watch that is worth up to $14,000 in Peru. Other TV shows later flagged that the leader was seen wearing at least two other Rolexes, as well as a gold and diamond Cartier bracelet estimated to cost more than $54,000. The controversy was quickly dubbed ‘Rolexgate’ on social media.

Peruvian law requires officials to declare jewellery whose price exceeds $2,791, and it’s still not clear where the watches and hundreds of thousands of dollars in bank transfers came from.

Boluarte has provided scarce details about the suspicious transactions and jewellery, which she did not declare to authorities, but said that the Rolex first shown in photos was the “fruit of my labour” working since she was 18.