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Peru’s president will answer questions over ownership of luxury watches, her lawyers say

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LIMA, Peru (AP) — Peru’s President Dina Boluarte will answer questions Friday over her ownership of a trio of luxury watches, her attorneys said Tuesday, a day after she reshuffled her cabinet as an alleged illicit enrichment scandal further threatens her presidency.

The Cabinet shakeup Monday came as lawmakers submitted to Parliament a request to remove Boluarte from office for «permanent moral incapacity.» The request came three days after police broke down the front door of her residence to search for the watches as part of an investigation.

PERU’S PRESIDENT REPLACES 6 MINISTERS AS LAWMAKERS URGE PARLIAMENT TO REMOVE HER

The law firm of attorney Mateo Castañeda, Boluarte’s lawyer, said on X, formerly Twitter, that the Attorney General’s Office denied her client’s request to move up the interview’s date and that prosecutors said «they are not responsible for the political whirlwind» in Peru.

Peru-Dina-Boluarte-FILE

Peru’s President Dina Boluarte talks to the press at the end of the Amazon Summit in Belem, Brazil, Aug. 8, 2023.  (AP Photo/Eraldo Peres)

Prosecutors have also instructed Boluarte to show them the watches Friday.

The shake-up comes as Boluarte struggles to govern amid sinking popularity, investigations against her and frequent scandals involving senior officials. The latest appointments were for ministers of interior, education, women, agriculture, production and foreign trade.

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All outgoing ministers submitted their resignation Monday. Interior Minister Víctor Torres told reporters his was due to a family matter while the heads of the Ministry of Women, Nancy Tolentino, and of Education, Miriam Ponce, did not offer reasons in the announcements they shared on social media.

Benjamin Gedan, director of the Latin America program at the Washington-based Wilson Center think tank, said the changes «will not move the needle on public opinion or reduce the chances of impeachment or protests.»

«It is hard to imagine anything short of new elections could prevent yet another political crisis, though the president and her similarly unpopular allies in Congress will try to ride this out,» he said Tuesday.

Market research firm Ipsos measured Boluarte’s unpopularity rate at 88% in March.

Boluarte is being preliminarily investigated for allegedly acquiring an undisclosed collection of luxury watches since becoming vice president and social inclusion minister in July 2021 and then president in December 2022. She did not list the three watches in an obligatory asset declaration form.

Boluarte has denied the illicit enrichment accusations.

Lawmakers’ request to remove her from office cites the investigation as well as countrywide problems, such as rising crime. The request was submitted by lawmakers from various parties including Peru Libre to which Boluarte once belonged.

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Lawmakers are expected to consider the request Thursday. The move must earn 52 votes in order for Parliament to accept it and open a debate. To remove Boluarte, the move requires 87 votes from the 130-seat unicameral Parliament, and so far, five parties that together have 54 votes expressed support for the president following the raid.

Late Friday, armed police officers broke down the front door of Boluarte’s house with a battering ram and entered the property to search for the watches. They did not find them.

The raid marked the first time in Peru’s history that police forcibly entered the home of a sitting president.

The probe began in mid-March after a TV show spotlighted Boluarte wearing a Rolex watch that is worth up to $14,000 in Peru. Other TV shows later mentioned at least two more Rolexes. Neither Boluarte nor her attorney have answered questions from reporters about the watches, including whether they are authentic.

Boluarte, a 61-year-old lawyer, was a modest district official before entering then-President Pedro Castillo’s government on a monthly salary of $8,136 in July 2021. She became president in December 2022 — when Parliament dismissed Castillo — with a lower salary of $4,200 per month and began wearing the watches shortly after.

If prosecutors eventually charge Boluarte with illicit enrichment, they will have to defer prosecution until after her term ends in 2026.

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Boluarte is also being preliminarily investigated for her alleged role in deadly protests that followed Castillo’s dismissal. Castillo is now imprisoned while being investigated for alleged corruption and rebellion.

Peru is no stranger to presidential crises. No president has finished a full term since 2016, and the South American country cycled through three of them in a week in 2020, when lawmakers flexed their impeachment powers.

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Wife of US hostage Keith Siegel pleads for holiday miracle: ‘we need to get them back’

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FIRST ON FOX – Aviva Siegel, the wife of American hostage Kieth Siegel and a former hostage herself, is pleading with everyone and anyone involved in the hostage negotiations to get her husband, and the others, freed from Hamas captivity after they have spent more than 440 days in deplorable conditions. 

«Hamas released a video of Keith, and I just saw the picture,» Aviva told Fox News Digital in an emotional interview in reference to a video Hamas released in April. «He looks terrible. His bones are out, and you can see that he’s lost a lot of weight.

«He doesn’t look like himself. And I’m just so worried about him, because so [many] days and minutes have passed since that video that we received,» she said. «I just don’t know what kind of Keith that we’re going to get back.»

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Keith Samuel Siegel, 64, remains hostage in Gaza by Hamas (Hostage Family Forum)

7 US HOSTAGES STILL HELD BY HAMAS TERRORISTS AS FAMILIES PLEAD FOR THEIR RELEASE: ‘THIS IS URGENT’

«I’m worried about all the hostages, because the conditions that they are in are the worst conditions that any human being could go through,» Aviva said. «I was there. I touched death. I know what it feels being underneath the ground with no oxygen. 

«Keith and I were just left there. We were left there to die,» she added. 

Aviva and her husband of, at the time 42 years, were brutally abducted from their home in Kibbutz Kfar Aza by Hamas on Oct. 7, 2023, and held together for 51 days before she was released in the November 2023 hostage exchange after suffering from a stomach infection that left her incredibly ill. 

She has since tirelessly fought for Kieth’s release, meeting with top officials in the U.S. and Israel, traveling to the United States nine times in the last year and becoming a prominent advocate for the hostages. 

«I just hope that he’s with other people from Israel, and if he has them, he’s going to be okay,» Aviva said. «He’s just the person that will make them feel that they’re together. That’s what he did when I was there – he was 100% for me and the hostages that we were with.»

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Aviva Siegel

TEL AVIV, ISRAEL – MARCH 30: Released hostage Aviva Siegel, wife of hostage Keith Siegel, speaks during the final weekly ‘bring them home now’ rally on March 30, 2024 in Tel Aviv, Israel. According to the families of hostages forum, this would be the last week a rally is held at ‘hostage square’ citing that the government is not serious about negotiations and instead will be protesting in front of the Knesset from now on.  (Photo by Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

 «If you get kidnapped, get kidnapped with Keith, because he was outstanding to everybody. He was strong for all of us. And I’m sure that he’s keeping strong and keeping his hope to come out,» she said. 

Aviva recounted their last moments together before they were separated ahead of her release, telling Fox News Digital, «When I left him, I told him to be the strongest – that he needs to be strong for me, and I’ll be strong for him.»

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY UNDER PRESSURE AMID RISING RESISTANCE, POPULARITY OF IRAN-BACKED TERROR GROUPS

Top security officials from the U.S., Egypt, and Qatar have been pushing Israel and Hamas to agree to a cease-fire and the return of hostages. 

Reports on Thursday suggested that negotiators are pushing for a 42-day cease-fire in which 34 of the at least 50 hostages still assessed to be alive, could be exchanged. 

Hamas is also believed to continue to hold at least 38 who were taken hostage and then killed while in captivity, along with at least seven who are believed to have been killed on Oct. 7, 2023 and then taken into Gaza. 

Though all the hostages are believed to have been held in deplorable conditions, the children, women – including the female IDF soldiers – the sick and the elderly have reportedly been front listed to be freed first in exchange for Hamas terrorists currently imprisoned. 

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«I’m keeping my hope and holding on and just waiting – waiting to hug Keith, and waiting for all the families, to get their families back,» Aviva said. «We need to get them back.»

Aviva said she dreams of the moment that she gets to hug her husband again and watch their grandchildren «jump into his arms.» 

«We’ll be the happiest people on Earth,» she said. «All the hostages, I can’t imagine them coming home. It’ll be just the happiest moment for all of the families. We need it to happen.»

Reports in recent weeks suggest there is an increased sense of optimism in bringing home the hostages, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged some caution when speaking with MSNBC Morning Joe on Thursday when he said, «We are encouraged because this should happen, and it should happen because Hamas is at a point where the cavalry it thought might come to the rescue isn’t coming to the rescue, [Hezbollah’s] not coming to the rescue, [Iran’s] not coming to the rescue.»

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«In the absence of that, I think the pressure is on Hamas to finally get to yes,» he added. «But look, I think we also have to be very realistic.  We’ve had these Lucy and the football moments several times over the last months where we thought we were there, and the football gets pulled away.

«The real question is: Is Hamas capable of making a decision and getting to yes?  We’ve been fanning out with every possible partner on this to try to get the necessary pressure exerted on Hamas to say yes,» Blinken added.  

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