With Peru in the global spotlight for APEC, so is one of the world's least popular presidents

LIMA, Peru (AP) — It was a big day for Peru’s accidental president, Dina Boluarte, whose official schedule has been blank for months.

On Thursday, the high-profile Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit in Lima thrust Boluarte — among the world's least popular presidents, with a mere 4% public approval rating — into the bright lights of a convention center packed with world leaders, prominent CEOs and visiting dignitaries.

It's not just that Boluarte, long a low-profile and low-paid civil servant, has never before rolled out the red carpet for powerful leaders like U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping since taking office in December 2022. It's that she has hardly been seen outside her brick mansion in weeks. Local journalists count more than 100 days since she last spoke to a reporter.

Her recent reclusion is not especially surprising. She became president because she was the vice-president of Pedro Castillo, a former rural schoolteacher with no previous political experience who was ousted when he tried to dissolve Congress and disband the courts. A wave of violent protests rocked the country, marring Boluarte's first weeks in power.

The president's popularity tanked even more in March, when the sight of Rolex watches gleaming from her wrist prompted police to raid her home and prosecutors to launch an investigation into her alleged unlawful enrichment.

A survey by polling company Ipsos showed her approval drop to just 4%. The poll was conducted Oct. 10-11, with a margin of error of plus or minus 2.8 percentage points. No president in Peru has had a worse rating in at least 40 years.

Powerful lawmakers satisfied with their lavish salaries have resisted calls to impeach her but quietly absorbed most of her duties, leaving Boluarte with little to do.

The latest lightning rod for public ire has been a growing trend of violent extortion by criminal gangs in Lima's hardscrabble outskirts. Protesters accusing the government of indifference to rising crime have taken to the streets across Peru.

On Wednesday, protesters blocked highways and rallied in Peru's southeast Arequipa region, drawing a police crackdown that left six injured by rubber bullets. Lima residents also took advantage of the international spotlight to stage protests this week while Biden and 20 other world leaders prepared to gather for the APEC summit.

After a string of killings targeting bus drivers who failed to pay extortion money last month sent a chill through Lima, public transport drivers launched several strikes that paralyzed the city of 10 million. The government has declared a state of emergency and promised a strong response, but the persistence of violent attacks has sharpened anger against Boluarte.

Fearing all that could go wrong in yanking Peru's wildly unpopular leader out of the shadows and onto the world stage this week, the government left nothing to chance.

Authorities declared Thursday through Saturday as nonworking holidays and closed schools, ordering millions of school children and civil servants to stay home the entire week to keep the streets clear. At a highway underpass near the convention center hosting APEC on Monday, workers scrubbed the spray-painted slogan “Dina Asesina,” or “Dina, the Murderer” from a concrete wall.

“The event is certainly important for Peru, but the government is so scared of losing control of the streets that it’s overreacting, putting inappropriate measures in place,” said Eduardo Dargent, a political scientist at the Pontifical Catholic University of Peru.

Officials have pleaded with citizens not to protest.

“It would be very regrettable if, in the days that we receive visitors from the world's 21 most powerful economies, we show a bad spectacle, a spectacle of conflict,” Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen said in a recent press conference. President Boluarte went further, branding protests “traitors."

On Thursday, protesters said that the specter of conflict at APEC was exactly what they wanted.

As Boluarte, donning a sparkly pink dress and pearls, greeted Chinese President Xi with a ceremonial honor guard and trumpet flourish, riot police scuffled with anti-government protesters a few blocks away.

“She's trying to take advantage of this moment in front of the TV cameras to pretend she's the president of Peru,” said Betty Mendoza, a 35-year-old protester brandishing portraits of the 50 civilian demonstrators killed in the 2022 social unrest.

“She does not represent us,” Mendoza said of Boluarte. “We did not elect her.”

At one point Thursday, masked protesters surged toward a line of police near the conference site, shoving officers who pushed back and beat them with batons. Medics rushed to attend to several teenage boys clutching their heads and yelping in pain.

“My grandson is growing up in a country where violence is being normalized,” said 54-year-old Freda Reyes, who had come to protest from the eastern working-class district of Santa Anita where she said 10 of her neighbors had been killed by criminal gangs this month.

The last time Peru hosted APEC, in 2016, a wave of protests similarly sprung up around the country. At the time, workers were striking over their low salaries and Lima residents venting over their city's notoriously derelict public infrastructure.

That remains a concern. On Wednesday, a fire raced up the sides of a multi-story plastic toy warehouse and engulfed six other houses near the presidential palace, causing no injuries but raising a pall of black smoke visible from the red carpet where Boluarte was bestowing a medal on her Malaysian counterpart.

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Associated Press writer Franklin Briceno in Lima, Peru, contributed to this report.

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, shakes hands with US Ambassador to Peru Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath on the airport tarmac ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

U.S. President Joe Biden deplanes in Lima, Peru, to attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

An anti-government protester holds a photo of Peru's President Dina Boluarte with a sash that reads in Spanish, "Assassin" during a demonstration on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 13, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Peru's President Dina Boluarte and Chinese President Xi Jinping, both right, watch the inauguration of a Chinese-funded port in the city of Chancay, during a virtual ceremony at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

U.S. President Joe Biden, left, Peru's Prime Minister Gustavo Adrianzen, center, and US Ambassador to Peru Stephanie Syptak-Ramnath wave on the airport tarmac ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Peru's President Dina Boluarte, right, and Chinese President Xi Jinping shake hands after a ceremony to virtually inaugurate a Chinese-funded port in the city of Chancay, at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

China's President Xi Jinping, center, and Peru's President Dina Boluarte face the honor guard during a welcome ceremony at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

Peru's President Dina Boluarte, left, and Chinese President Xi Jinping walk down the red carpet during a welcome ceremony at the government palace in Lima, Peru, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit. (AP Photo/Fernando Vergara)

JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa's government says it won't help a group of illegal miners inside a closed mine in the country's North West province who have been denied access to basic supplies as part of an official strategy against illegal mining.

The miners in the mineshaft in Stilfontein are believed to be suffering from a lack of food, water and other basic necessities after police closed off the entrances used to transport their supplies underground.

It is part of the police’s Vala Umgodi, or Close the Hole, operation, which includes cutting off miners’ supplies to force them to return to the surface and be arrested.

Police had earlier indicated that information received from those who recently helped bring three miners to the surface indicated that up to 4,000 miners may be underground.

However, on Thursday afternoon, police spokesperson Athlenda Mathe said that they believed the number was exaggerated and maybe be far less than that, estimating a figure of between 350 and 400 miners.

"We feel that the numbers are being exaggerated. We have deployed maximum resources to this case including our intelligence operative who are on the ground who have engaged with all stakeholders.

“We have managed to estimate the numbers to be between 350 and 400,” Mathe said.

South African ministers of police and defense are on Thursday expected to visit the mine to engage with officials and community members on the ground, Mathe said.

Stilfontein is one of the mines that were targeted by police as they intensified their operation in the North West province from Oct. 18.

It's unclear how long the current group of miners have been underground as the groups are reported to often stay underground for months, depending on supplies of basic necessities like food and water from the outside.

“We have taken a decision that no police officer, no soldier or government official will go down to an abandoned mine. There is a high risk of loss of life,” she said.

Mathe said they had information that the miners may be heavily armed, adding that since embarking on operations against illegal miners since last December, police had seized more than 369 high caliber firearms, 10,000 rounds of ammunition, 5 million rand ($275,000) in cash and 32 million rand ($1.75 million) worth of uncut diamonds.

In the past few weeks, more than 1,000 miners have surfaced at various mines in North West province, with many reported to be weak, hungry and sickly after going for weeks without basic supplies.

Police continue on Thursday to guard areas around the mine to catch all those appearing from underground.

Cabinet Minister Khumbudzo Ntshavheni told reporters on Wednesday that the government wouldn't send any help to the illegal miners, because they are involved in a criminal act.

“We are not sending help to criminals. We are going to smoke them out. They will come out. Criminals are not to be helped. We didn’t send them there," Ntshavheni said.

Illegal mining remains common in South Africa's old gold-mining areas, with miners going into closed shafts to dig for any possible remaining deposits.

The illegal miners are often from neighboring countries, and police say the illegal operations involve larger syndicates that employ the miners.

Their presence in closed mines have also created problems with nearby communities, which complain that the illegal miners commit crimes ranging from robberies to rape.

Illegal mining groups are known to be heavily armed, and disputes between rival groups sometimes result in fatal confrontations.

Relatives of miners and community members wait at a mine shaft where illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Relatives of miners and community members wait at a mine shaft where illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Volunteer rescue workers and community members leave a mine shaft where illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Relatives of miners and community members wait at a mine shaft where illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Nov.14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Rescue workers, bottom left, remove a body from a reformed mineshaft where illegal miners are trapped inside a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Nov.14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Rescue workers, left, remove a body from a reformed mineshaft where illegal miners are trapped inside a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Thursday, Nov.14, 2024. (AP Photo/Jerome Delay)

Police patrol at a mine shaft where an estimated 4000 illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Nov.13, 2024. (AP Photo)

Relatives of miners and community members wait at a mine shaft where an estimated 4000 illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Nov.13, 2024. (AP Photo)

An aerial view of a mine shaft where an estimated 4000 illegal miners are trapped in a disused mine in Stilfontein, South Africa, Wednesday, Nov.13, 2024. (AP Photo)