Pope Leo urges end to violence in Peru during visit to remote Andes town

Pope Leo XIV has called for an end to the violence gripping Peru, urging people not to respond to injustice with brutality, as he visited communities he once served as bishop.

“We feel threatened by the uncertainty of widespread violence and by the unspeakable suffering that continues to afflict so many of our brothers and sisters, he said, speaking at his former cathedral in Chiclayo.

Peru’s homicide rate has nearly doubled over the past five years, from 5.8 to 10.7 per 100,000 people. Reported extortion cases rose from 2,421 in 2019 to 26,734 in 2025, according to official figures cited by The Associated Press.

Security was a top concern for Peruvians in the last election. Conservative President Keiko Jujimori took office in July after promising to tackle crime. She has since declared states of emergency, including in Lima in August, then in September in prisons holding inmates linked to criminal organisations.

She has also pursued closer ties with Washington, bringing Peru into the ‘Shield of the Americas,’ a US-led regional coalition formed to carry out joint military operations against drug cartels.

Later on Saturday, in the Andean town of Santa Cruz de Succhabamba with a population of about 6,000, about 20,000 people came to an outdoor Mass, where Leo also addressed violence in society.

“Selfishness, injustice and evil are not overcome by brutality, but by prayer, patience and perseverance in denouncing what is wrong, by making our pleas with determination and working diligently to bring about the necessary changes,” said the leader of the Roman Catholic church.

He also drew attention to the suffering of rural communities he used to serve, where migration and declining birth rates are emptying villages.

“Let us think, for example, of the suffering of those who are forced to leave their homeland in search of a better future for themselves and their families in the great coastal cities,” he said.

Originally from Chicago in the United States and formerly known as Robert Francis Prevost, Leo arrived in Santa Cruz de Succhabamba by helicopter and was welcomed by a local band singing “Pope Leo, welcome home.”

He’d made the journey to the remote area many times before during his time as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023, driving himself along winding mountain roads in a pick-up truck.

The pope, who holds both US and Peruvian citizenship, spent about two decades working in Peru as a missionary priest and bishop.