Shamans in Peru gathered for an annual New Year’s ritual on December 29, where they made predictions for the year ahead, including the downfall of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, which has since come true. After this prediction proved accurate, attention has shifted to some of the other forecasts made during the ritual, including illness for US President Donald Trump and the end of the Russia-Ukraine war.
Dressed in traditional Andean ponchos and headdresses, the group carried out a ceremony and made predictions about global politics, ongoing conflicts and the future of world leaders. Apart from Trump and Maduro, the shamans waved posters of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
“We have asked for Maduro to leave, to retire, for President Donald Trump of the United States to be able to remove him, and we have visualised that next year this will happen,” shaman Ana María Simeon was quoted as saying by news agency AP.
Notably, Maduro was captured by US forces and taken to New York on Saturday, where he is set to face formal charges related to drug and weapons offences.
Illness for Trump, flag of peace for Russia-Ukraine war among other predictions
“The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” Juan de Dios Garcia said as he gathered with other shamans on a beach in southern Lima.
The shamans also predicted an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. “I see that the conflict will end. They will raise the flag of peace,” Garcia said.
For Peru, Garcia predicted that Keiko Fujimori, daughter of former president Alberto Fujimori, would win the country’s presidential election after three unsuccessful attempts.
“The woman who dreams of ruling Peru, I have been able to see through the wachuma (ancestral plant) that Keiko Fujimori will be president in 2026,” he said.
How accurate are these predictions?
The group’s annual forecasts have produced mixed results. In 2023 as well, the shamans predicted that the war in Ukraine would end.
Last year, they warned of a “nuclear war” between Israel and Gaza, where a ceasefire is now in place.
However, in December 2023, they correctly predicted that former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who had been jailed for human rights abuses, would die within 12 months.
Fujimori died of cancer in September 2024 at the age of 86.
With inputs from agencies