Laura Bozzo
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Dr. Laura Bozzo (born c. 1950) is a Peruvian television talk show host who has become famous for her feminist social views.
Bozzo became well known in Latin America in the 1990s with her talk show Laura en América, in which she takes on so-called macho values. In her show, guests are often men who have allegedly cheated on their wives or partners, abandoned them when they became pregnant, or physically or mentally abused them. Bozzo has also used her program at various times to criticize men and women who date much younger people.
Bozzo has recently gained notoriety with her own personal troubles. She once set up a charity to help abused women and children in Peru, but the organization was plagued by rumors that Bozzo was really bilking the charity for her own personal gain. Bozzo also had a friendship with the controversial former President of Peru, Alberto Fujimori, while he was in office. She was romantically linked to one of Fujimori's top aides, Vladimiro Montesinos, who was arrested after Fujimori sought political asylum in Japan. Bozzo soon fled Peru and settled in Miami. A Peruvian court charged her with helping Montesinos steal public money.
In 2001, Bozzo's fame only increased when a Spanish-language cable network, Telemundo, decided to broadcast her show on its U.S. affiliates. Laura en América soon began to be shown all over Latin America, and she even traveled to other Spanish-speaking areas—including Puerto Rico, Mexico, Bolivia and Argentina—to tape some shows. (Most of her broadcasts were still those taped in Peru, before she had fled to Miami.)
Although on her own show Bozzo sometimes railed against "May-December" relationships, it was reported that in Miami she herself had a male companion who was about 25 years younger than she. Ultimately, Bozzo decided to return to Peru to face the charges against her. Because her Lima home had been confiscated after she left for Miami, she has had to live in the Laura en América studios under court-ordered house arrest while her case is pending. Her companion is said to have moved to Peru to be with her. For a while, a Peruvian court allowed Bozzo to produce her show live from the studio. Recently, a new court order mandated that she stop producing her show live, perhaps to prevent Bozzo from trying to use the show to turn public opinion in her favor.
Laura Bozzo has expressed dislike toward her fellow Telemundo star Maria Celeste Arraras, going so far as to tell TV Notas magazine that "if Maria Celeste wants to be the First Lady of Telemundo, I prefer to be the one [favored by] the public....Let her keep the [First Lady] title!"