Somewhere between the scandal of Christian Cueva and the soap opera of former Argentine President Alberto Fernández, Dina Boluarte lost another valuable opportunity to make a statement. A position that vindicates women in the face of sexist violence and differentiates them from their former leftist travel companions.
Boluarte missed the chance to criticize the back alley mess in Pasos Perdidos surrounding ‘El Niño’ Darwin Espinoza. And he missed the opportunity to show solidarity with journalist Manuela Camacho in the face of her serial harasser.
The president could have taken up Pamela López’s complaint, inaugurated a police station with a Gesell chamber and launched a campaign using the panic button. She, who has also been attacked in Ayacucho, could have called for a national crusade or inaugurated shelters. Of all these options, she chose to remain silent. She opted for a muteness lacking ideas, rather than for complicit silence.
It is at times like this that it is tempting to agree with the left, the one that does not recognize Dina Boluarte as the first female president of Peru. In his ideological paroxysm, a left-wing radio host who decorated Vladimir Cerrón went so far as to say that Dina Boluarte “is neither a Quechua speaker, nor is she provincial, nor is she a woman, nor is she a president. She uses all of that to pretend that she governs, but deep down she hides in power to avoid answering to justice regarding the deaths.”
Like their Fujimorist partners in Congress, who created the Ministry of Women but never bothered to develop their own women’s or gender agenda, Dina Boluarte seems to have capitulated on her political role as a woman.
