What are the Peruvian shamans' predictions for 2026?
Peruvian shaman Juan de Dios Garcia and fellow healers gather in Lima to predict 2026. Here’s how the ritual works and where past prophecies hit or missed.
Image: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo
Stroll along Lima’s coast in late December and you might spot a scene that feels part theatre, part prayer. Bright Andean ponchos. Incense curling into the air. Blankets laid on the sand, scattered with flower petals and coca leaves. And, front and centre, oversized photos of the world’s most powerful people. Think Trump, Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, among others.
This is Peru’s annual end-of-year shaman gathering, where healers and spiritual practitioners share predictions for the year ahead. Some of the biggest predictions that caught our attention at Sky HISTORY? A major health scare for Donald Trump, turmoil in Venezuela, hopes (again) for peace in Ukraine and a familiar Peruvian political name tipped to finally win the top job at home.
The ritual: how the predictions are made
The ceremony takes place on La Herradura beach in Lima. Shamans gather by the sea to ask for ‘good energy’ for the new year. Not just for Peru, but for the wider world. There’s a big focus on visuals, with items like flower petals, coca leaves and even swords used during the ceremony. Chanting and music played on traditional instruments brings the event to life. In many ways it’s similar to the colourful, shaman-led ceremonies you’ll see at Machu Picchu honouring deities like Pachamama (Mother Earth) and Inti (the Inca Sun God).
Refreshments have an important role to play. On the menu? Hallucinogenic plant concoctions, including a psychoactive brew called ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus. Both are believed to help the shamans access visions of what’s to come.
Juan de Dios Garcia’s 2026 predictions: illness, exile and elections
One of the most prominent voices this year was shaman Juan de Dios Garcia. His headline prediction is a serious illness for U.S. President Donald Trump in 2026. It’s not the first time a Trump prediction has made headlines, with 19th-century novelist Ingersoll Lockwood recently resurfacing after social media sleuths had a field day over a set of prophecies hidden in his quirky, long-forgotten children’s books.
Garcia also targeted Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro, predicting his defeat and exile. Specifically that Maduro would flee and avoid capture.
Turns out that prediction didn’t exactly survive contact with reality. Maduro didn’t slip away into exile at all. He was captured in Caracas on 3rd January 2026 during a U.S. operation and taken to the United States to face charges in New York. It was a seismic political moment to say the least.
On Ukraine, Garcia predicted the conflict with Russia would end, with the ‘flag of peace’ raised. Closer to home, Garcia said he foresees Keiko Fujimori (daughter of former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori) winning Peru’s 2026 presidential election after three unsuccessful attempts.
Other shamans at the gathering spoke about major conflicts continuing, called for peace in the Middle East and warned of natural disasters like earthquakes and climatic disturbances.
A mixed record: when have they been right (and wrong)?
This is where things get interesting, because the shamans’ reputation rests on an uneven track record. A clear hit often cited is their prediction, made in December 2023, that former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori would die within a year. He died of cancer in September 2024.
But misses are part of the story too, as demonstrated by Garcia’s Maduro prediction. In a previous year, the group warned of a ‘nuclear war’ between Israel and Gaza. That didn’t come to pass, with a ceasefire reported instead. And then there’s Ukraine. The shamans have predicted peace there before and the country is still waiting.
What’s next for the shamans?
So, should we treat the 2026 predictions as prophecy, performance or something in between? Probably all three. These rituals sit in that human space where fear and hope collide. It’s a pattern that other famous soothsayers like Nostradamus and Baba Vanga tend to play on. Why does it work so well? Because humans have an almost stubborn need to impose order on chaos. To look at an unpredictable world and try to make sense of it with stories, symbols and a bit of ceremony. Soothsayers do just this.
Sometimes, they’re right. Other times, they’re wrong. In the end, it doesn’t really matter. That’s why, come December, people will keep watching the Peruvian shamans lay out their flowers and coca leaves and name what they think is waiting round the corner.
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