LIMA, (Reuters) – Peruvian President Dina Boluarte yesterday said she was willing to discuss early elections with the country’s political and civil organizations, but ruled out kick-starting constitutional changes for the time being.
Boluarte, who took office on Wednesday hours after her predecessor Pedro Castillo was ousted, said she was calling for calm as protests broke out in support of the former president.
Early morning footage on local television showed hundreds of farmers blocking a stretch of Peru’s main coastal highway demanding early elections.
“If society and the situation warrants bringing forward elections, then in conversation with the democratic and political forces in Congress, we will sit down to talk,” she told reporters.
“I am not the one who caused this situation, I am only fulfilling the constitutional role,” she added, calling on the “sisters and brothers who are coming out in protest… to calm down.”
Later on Friday, Boluarte said she had received a call expressing support from Argentina’s President Alberto Fernandez.
“He expressed his support and collaboration in the framework of the strengthening of our democracy, bilateral relations and regional policies,” she said on Twitter.
The 60-year-old lawyer Boluarte, who was Castillo’s vice president, became the first woman to assume the country’s presidency and is set to hold the post until 2026 if no fresh elections are called.
Asked about calls from some leftist parties to draft a new constitution, Boluarte said the long-standing demand should not be abandoned but it was not something she wanted to do in the short term.
