CNN
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The allegations of the secret nose job threaten Peruvian President Dina Boralto’s grip on power. That’s just part of her problem.
According to a recent Datum Internacional poll, Latin American leaders, who gained popularity among the world’s lowest ratings, with 93% of disapproval ratings, are faced with a series of investigations at the hands of Peru’s attorney general.
The most severe of these included more than 60 deaths during crackdowns by government security forces over the protests that followed the expulsion of her predecessor, Pedro Castillo in December 2022. It’s crazy enough to include allegations that she accepted Rolex watches and other gems as bribes and transported fugitive politicians in their presidential cars.
However, her nose surgery in the summer of 2023 is currently attracting attention from national headline writers.
Boralto, who denied all allegations against her, is accused of abandoning her post to get the surgery because she did not notify Congress or delegate force during her nearly two weeks’ absence due to the surgery she claimed was “essential” to her health, as it is constitutionally necessary.
Last week, plastic surgeon Mario Kabani asked questions about the account and told a local TV show that of five steps, including rhinoplasty, septumplasty, lower eyelid procedures, and fat grafting of the nasolabial lips, all were flesh surgery.
Kabani, who said he had judicial permission to disclose the proceedings, argued that Boralte was sedated and sometimes unconscious during the proceedings.
Boralte has not commented on Kabani’s claims, but her spokesman told Elpais that it was a “private issue.” CNN has requested comment from the lawyer.
As if the controversy over Bolalto’s nose had not been damaging enough, it follows another controversy over her wrist.
In March 2024, police stormed her home (and later the presidential residence) and as part of the “Rolex Gate” scandal, she was accused of illegal enrichment and accused of failing to declare ownership of some luxury watches. Boralte argues that the watch is actually a “loan” she misrepresented.
It is a situation that may seem to shock the well-documented troubles of people who are not familiar with Peruvian politics and leaders over the last decades.
However, in this country, presidential scandals (proven or suspect) are very common, with one of the prisons housing four disgraced former leaders.
Call it the Peruvian President’s Curse: Since the turn of the millennium, more than seven presidents have been brought to trial or faced legal challenges related to allegations of corruption or human rights abuse. The eighth shooting died when police closed.
Peru’s infamous political instability – Boralte became the sixth president in 2022 in just seven years to be taken over without an election – often dating back to presidency Alberto Fujimorihe was exiled in 2000 after a scandal involving his intelligence chief and was convicted of corruption, embezzlement and human rights violations.
Since then, the political careers of most of Fujiwara’s successors have also ended in disgrace.
Alejandro Toledo (2001-2006) The first man to be elected president after Fujimoto was sentenced to more than 20 years in prison last year for receiving millions of bribery from Brazilian construction company Odebrecht in a scandal that contaminated the political elites of Latin America.
Alan Garcia (2006-2011) He died in 2019 from a self-harm bullet wound, and prosecutors and police were scheduled to arrest him as part of an investigation into Odebrecht.
Ollanta Humala (2011-2016) This month he was sentenced to 15 years in prison by the first instance court for his illegal campaign contributions from Odbrecht and the Venezuelan government.
Pedro Pablo Kuczynski (2016-2018) When money laundering allegations surfaced, he too resigned after seizing power for two years after being caught up in the grip of the Odbrecht scandal. Today, while he is arrested at home, trials continue against him.
Martin Vizcarra (2018-2020) The year after he came to power, the parliament was dissolved. He also did not finish his term, but was excluded by Congress on citing “moral incompetence” after being accused of taking bribes during his time as governor. He is currently on trial.
Pedro Castillo (2021-2022), The rural teacher and union leader was relatively unknown when one resigned within a week when he won the election after a brief rule by two interim presidents. He was detained on suspicion of crimes in the rebellion, disbanded by Congress after attempting to dissolve it and establish an emergency government.
Bol Artehis vice president took over in 2022.
The defendants and all convicted individuals refused to file charges against them.
Many experts point to the return of the 1990 inauguration ceremony in 1990 to the authoritarian rule of the country, which spent the entire 1970s as a military dictatorship.
Fujiwara, the son of Japanese immigrants and the host of environmentally-focused television shows, started democratically, campaigning for change at the time of the economic crisis, defeating the right-wing coalition led by future Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Rosa.
He also won early praise for the “Fuji Shock” austerity policy, which was suppressed by hyperinflation, as well as his fight against the rebel guerrilla groups responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands.
However, an authoritarian streak quickly emerged, and allegations of abuse of power and corruption began to swirl, but he turned to security forces to suppress his enemy.
Within two years of his victory at the ballot box, Fujimori closed parliament and judiciary, revised the constitution, established a dictatorship that “destroyed political parties,” and implemented a “self-organization,” according to constitutionalist lawyer Luciano Lopez.
“To (For Fujiwara) it was anti-value to be a political party, and anti-value to do politics,” said Anibal Kiroga, dean of the Faculty of Law and Political Science at Cesar Vallejo University.
Since then, according to Quiroga, political parties have been “permanently replaced by individualists, populists and improvisations.”
The country’s next election scheduled for April 2026 will have 43 candidates registered to run for presidency. As Quiroga puts it, “what Peru produces the most after coffee is a presidential candidate.”
Lopez points out another Fujino legacy to challenge instability. This is the amended constitution he brought in after his own organization, which he handed over great power to Congress.
The issues that these revisions made for the presidency were not revealed until 2017 were uncovered until the opposition first had a majority in Congress and used that authority to defeat Kucinsky. Since then, it has become even more difficult for the president to take power.
To amplify the issue is that the current Congress has amended several provisions of the Constitution, according to Lopez, to raise the imbalance of power and leave the “almighty” Congress.
Lopez fears this saves the problem for the future. If the president wins the election but does not support the governing Congress, Lopez asks what he or she will do. “I sincerely hope that I’m wrong, but we are exposed to something new on April 5, 1992,” he says, referring to Fujino’s Self-Organization Day.
Perhaps there is no more symbol of curse than the Barbadiro Prison in Lima, commonly known in Peru as the “presidential prison.”
But some experts should note that they see the fight against corruption in Peru – ranked 127th out of 180 on the Transparent International Corruption Recognition Index – only by the lens of that disgraceful former president.
As Quiroga points out, there have been cases of presidential corruption, but there have also been cases of “law,” he says. “Judicial proceedings for political purposes and purposes, or the use and abuse of general legal systems, often with the aim of eliminating, damaging or outlawing the enemy.”
Meanwhile, former prosecutor Jose Ugaz, former president of Transparency International, points out that the list of cursed presidents indicates Peru is “part of a part of a country that is “shady and plagued by corruption,” but it also indicates that it is a country that can bring seven former presidents to justice.
Jimena De La Quintana, Angélica Fonganillo Díaz and Hira Humayun of CNN contributed to this report.
