By Marco Aquino
LIMA (Reuters) – Peru’s prime minister promised billions of dollars in fresh spending on Wednesday, including for mining projects, as the embattled government sought to shore up support while facing corruption allegations against the president.
Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen offered the spending plan in a speech to Congress, including $4.6 billion for mining and some $8 billion for public-private partnerships, ahead of a vote of confidence in President Dina Boluarte’s cabinet.
Peru is a top global copper producer.
The government has been shaken by allegations that the president improperly acquired luxury Rolex watches along with other claims of illicit enrichment. Boluarte has denied all wrongdoing.
Nearly a third of the government’s ministers resigned on Monday following a weekend police raid of the president’s residence, raising the pressure on Boluarte, who took office in 2022 as Peru’s sixth president in just six years.
A recent poll showed that Peru’s Congress only commands about 9% approval in the South American nation, similar to Boluarte’s dwindling public support. The right-leaning Congress is nevertheless expected to approve the Adrianzen-led cabinet.
According to the constitution, all ministers would have to resign if the cabinet fails to win congressional backing.
The president’s situation grew more complicated on Tuesday, when the prosecutor’s office expanded its investigation into bank deposits of “unknown origin” as well as Boluarte’s acquisition of a Cartier bracelet worth tens of thousands of dollars.
In his address to lawmakers, the prime minister added that the government expected this year to finalize a move to improve commercial ties with China, part of a free trade agreement signed in 2009 that has boosted exports notably of Peruvian mining products.
Negotiations to amend the treaty began in 2019.
(Reporting by Marco Aquino; Writing by Sarah Morland and Brendan O’Boyle; Editing by Gabriel Araujo, David Alire Garcia and Bill Berkrot)
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