Who is Dina Boluarte, the new and first woman President of Peru?

Like the man she replaces, she is a leftist who grew up far from the capital, with strong ties to her impoverished mountainous region.

However, unlike her predecessor, Dina Boluarte, 60, the new president of Peru and the first woman to lead the country, is not famous as a bonfire.

On Wednesday, Ms Boluarte replaced Pedro Castillo as president, after Mr. Castillo, 53, tried to dissolve Congress and form an emergency government – a move condemned by many as a conspiracy coup.

Ms Boluarte, formerly vice president, said in her first speech as president, in her first speech as president, Ms Boluarte, in which she called for the formation of a government solidarity: “It’s up to us to talk, engage in dialogue, and reach agreements. “I ask for time to rescue our country from corruption and incompetence.”

The spectacular yet peaceful transition quickly became emblematic of the two seemingly opposing features that have shaped Peru’s fledgling democracy: its fragility but also its resilience.

In the past five years, the country has had six presidents and two parliaments, while corruption scandals, impeachment proceedings and deep divisions have undermined the government’s ability to function. government.

However, when Mr. Castillo, a former teacher and union activist, announced that he was forming a new government ruled by decree, he seemed to have gone too far.

In the space of just a few hours, his ministers all resigned, the armed forces and national police refused to support him, he was quickly arrested and Boluarte was sworn in.

The political tragedy reflects a larger trend across Latin America, analysts say. Corruption, widespread frustration over growing inequality, and enduring anger at the elite have fueled distrust and populism across the region.

These factors have led to repeated tests of nascent democracies, nurturing extreme candidates and leaders that cause distrust of election results, in some cases. applying the strategy of former President Donald J. Trump.

However, while some countries, including Venezuela and Nicaragua, have fallen to autocracy, democracy has be resilient recently in countries like Brazil and Colombiaboth hold elections this year to challenge the strength of their institutions.

“They don’t thrive,” said Steve Levitsky, a professor of government at Harvard University, of Latin American democracies, “but they do exist, and that’s no small thing.”

Mr. Castillo is being held at a naval base on the outskirts of the capital Lima, where he faces charges of “sedition,” according to the prosecutor’s office. On Thursday, he appeared at his first trial, in which a judge approved a request to detain the former president for at least a week as the case against him was prepared.

Guillermo Olivera, a lawyer who told local media he represented Castillo, called the former president’s arrest “horribly arbitrary, illegal and criminal.”

Ms. Boluarte hails from the south-central region of Apurímac, a predominantly native Quechua-speaking area. As a lawyer and public servant, she worked for 15 years in the country’s national registry, the department that issues identity cards and manages births, marriages, divorces and deaths.

The national registry is politically autonomous from the rest of the government, and some Peruvian political analysts say the agency is often seen as an efficient and technocratic organization.

Boluarte belonged to a Marxist political party, but broke up with it after falling out with its leadership. “Like thousands of Peruvian men and women, I’m on the left, but on the democratic left, not a dictator or a faction,” she told Caretas magazine. She praises a kind of politics that “allows for differences and criticism” rather than one that “has no infallible or untouchable leader”.

In 2021, Boluarte ran with Castillo’s ticket, later serving as his vice president and minister of development and social inclusion. When she took the oath of office last year, she announced that she would take office to serve “the unknown.”

But she resigned after the president formed his final cabinet last month, while still serving as vice president.

On Wednesday, she was quick to criticize the former president’s call to shut down Congress, say on Twitter: “I reject Pedro Castillo’s decision to violate the constitutional order by shutting down Congress. It was a coup.”

In an interview, the US ambassador to Peru, Lisa Kenna, praised the institutional response to Mr. Castillo’s attempt to dissolve Congress, calling it a “victory for democracy in Peru. “

Ms. Kenna said that she and Ms. Boluarte had held “important meetings” in the past. The ambassador added that she had requested another meeting with Ms. Boluarte, although they had not spoken since the oath of office.

Like Mr. Castillo, Ms. Boluarte has never been elected to a political body before 2021. She ran for mayor of part of the capital Lima in 2018 and ran for Congress in the year’s primaries. 2020, and lost both races. But she spent many years working in government.

Gonzalo Banda, an analyst and political columnist, has called Ms Boluarte one of the most stable figures in Mr. Castillo’s extremely unstable government.

“After a year in government, a year and a half, she’s not a stranger,” he said. “On the contrary, I think she is someone who will know how to navigate the quicksands of Peruvian power.”

She will face an uphill battle in Congress, now that she is in open conflict with the party she and Mr. Castillo have run with.

Carlos Reyna, who worked with Ms Boluarte for nine years at the national registry, describes her as sociable with polite manners. He doesn’t remember her ever attracting his attention and is surprised to see her enter politics.

He was optimistic about her ability to assume the presidency, and was excited by her calls for a truce and her understanding in her first speech.

“This is something that people desperately need in Peru,” said Mr. Reyna, now a professor of social sciences at the University of San Marcos in Lima. “I think she has what it takes to be able to do that job well.”

On Thursday, the streets of Lima and other cities were mostly quiet, after a day when some of Castillo’s supporters took to the streets in scattered protests.

In half a dozen interviews, most people said they supported the institutional rejection of Mr. Castillo’s attempt to shut down the government.

But few believe Ms. Boluarte will be able to usher in a new era of faith in Peruvian democracy.

Patricia Díaz, 46, who works at the front desk of an apartment building in Lima, called the peaceful transition of power “a relief” but said she had little hope for Ms. .

Anyone who enters the government “with good intentions” is spoiled, Ms. Díaz said.

Jacelin Tuesta, 39, a salesman for a tobacco distributor, said she saw Boluarte as no different from the politicians of the old days.

“But she is new and we will have faith,” Ms. Tuesta said. “She’s a woman, so maybe she’ll have a different perspective.”

In an interview, Noam Lupu, deputy director of the Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt University, said the power transition in Peru was a positive development, but he cautioned against it. celebrate too much. He pointed out his research shows that the Peruvian people are very unhappy with democracy, believing that the majority of politicians are corrupt and have a high tolerance for coups.

Is Peruvian democracy sustainable, he asked, “because there are some basic structural and institutional features that will ensure survival?”

Or, he said, “does it exist because no one is really capable of inciting discontent?”

Julie Turkewitz reports from São Paulo, Brazil; Genevieve Glatsky from Bogotá, Colombia; and Mitra Taj from Lima, Peru. Elda Cantú contributed reporting from Mexico City.