President

Institutional context

The President of Peru is the head of state and head of government, directly elected to a five-year term. From the country's 1821 founding through December 2022 every holder was male.

Career path

Dina Boluarte (born 1962) earned a law degree from the University of San Martín de Porres in Lima. She worked as a lawyer at the Peruvian National Registry of Identification and Civil Status before entering electoral politics. She was elected Vice President of Peru on the Free Peru ticket alongside Pedro Castillo in the June 2021 election, and concurrently served as Minister of Development and Social Inclusion in the Castillo cabinet.

Appointment

Following the failed self-coup attempt by Castillo on 7 December 2022 — in which he sought to dissolve Congress and rule by decree — the Peruvian Congress impeached Castillo and Boluarte succeeded to the presidency the same day under the constitution's vice-presidential succession provision. She is the first woman President of Peru.

Tenure

Two years and ten months. Her tenure was marked by substantial public protest, particularly in southern Peru, in opposition to Castillo's removal; by sustained low public approval; and by extensive corruption investigations including the so-called Rolexgate matter. The Peruvian Congress impeached and removed her from office on 10 October 2025. She is recorded in the dataset for the first-woman event itself, regardless of the political contestation around the manner of succession.

Cluster context

Boluarte's 2022 appointment is the dataset's third Latin American first-woman head of state to reach office through means other than direct election to her role (after Isabel Perón of Argentina 1974 and Lidia Gueiler Tejada of Bolivia 1979). The Latin American pattern includes a recurring strand of vice-presidential and constitutional-succession events alongside the directly elected line.

Sources

• Wikipedia — Dina Boluarte
• Wikipedia — President of Peru