Pope Leo XIV Urges End to Peru Violence as Extortion Cases Jump to 26,734

3 articles · Updated · Al Jazeera English · Nov 14

Chiclayo marked Pope Leo XIV’s sharpest appeal on his Peru visit, with the pontiff urging people not to answer injustice with brutality amid what he called widespread violence and suffering.
Official figures underscore that warning: Peru’s homicide rate has nearly doubled in five years to 10.7 per 100,000 people, while reported extortion cases surged from 2,421 in 2019 to 26,734 in 2025.
Santa Cruz de Succhabamba drew about 20,000 worshippers in a town of roughly 6,000, where Leo again said selfishness and evil must be confronted through prayer, perseverance and denouncing wrongdoing.
Peru’s crime wave has become a central political issue since President Keiko Fujimori took office in July, prompting emergency decrees and closer security cooperation with Washington against drug cartels.
Leo, a dual U.S.-Peruvian citizen who spent about two decades in Peru, also used the visit to highlight rural decline as migration and falling birth rates empty villages he once served.