Shamans in Peru gathered on Monday for their annual New Year ritual, making predictions for the year ahead, including claims of serious illness for US President Donald Trump and the political downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro.
The ceremony took place on a beach in southern Lima, where shamans dressed in colorful ponchos performed traditional rites, sprinkling flowers on the sand and burning incense while chanting ancestral prayers.
“The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” declared shaman Juan de Dios Garcia during the ritual. Participants displayed large posters of global leaders, crossing swords over them and, in some cases, stomping on the images as part of the symbolic ceremony.
Posters of several world leaders were featured, including Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, China’s President Xi Jinping, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as well as Trump and Maduro.
Garcia also predicted that Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro would be defeated and forced to flee the country. “We see Nicolas Maduro defeated. He will flee Venezuela, but he will not be captured,” he said.
Turning to Peruvian politics, the shaman forecast that Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former President Alberto Fujimori, would win Peru’s 2026 presidential election after three unsuccessful attempts. Garcia said the prediction came through visions induced by wachuma, an ancestral plant used in traditional rituals.
The shamans further predicted an end to the war between Russia and Ukraine, claiming that peace would prevail in the coming year. Similar predictions regarding the Ukraine conflict were also made during the 2023 ceremony.
The ritual is held annually in late December and is deeply rooted in indigenous Andean spiritual traditions, drawing both local and international attention.
