Pope Leo XIV Prays for Peace in Peru as Extortion Cases Jump to 26,734

3 articles · Updated · KSL.com · Nov 14

Chiclayo, Peru — Pope Leo XIV used visits to his former diocese to pray for an end to violence, saying Peru is living through "darkness" from crime and political instability.
Official data underscore that appeal: Peru's homicide rate has nearly doubled in five years to 10.7 per 100,000 people, while extortion reports surged from 2,421 in 2019 to 26,734 in 2025.
Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, 93 miles from Chiclayo and 6,675 feet up, was the pope's next stop, where he urged Peruvians to answer injustice with prayer, patience and persistent denunciation rather than brutality.
Indigenous leaders also pressed Leo to act on land disputes tied to the suppressed Catholic movement Sodalitium, saying companies linked to it tried to evict farmers from ancestral territory and that victims still await restitution and reparations.
Sunday's planned meeting with Amazonian and Indigenous peoples is expected to widen the focus from street crime to illegal gold mining, coca production and the church's broader role in addressing abuses the state has failed to stop.