2026 predictions: This is what Peruvian shamans forecast will happen this year
As it does every year, a group of shamans in Peru has gathered on a Lima beach to offer up its predictions for the 12 months ahead.
A group of Peruvian shamans has delivered its annual predictions for the year ahead - including a notable forecast on the health of U.S. president Donald Trump, who will turn 80 during 2026.
Decked out in traditional Andean dress, and carrying images of major world leaders, the shamans conducted their yearly ceremony at a beach in Peru’s capital, Lima, on Monday this week.
“The United States should prepare itself”
They predicted that Trump, who at 79 years and 201 days old is the second-oldest sitting president in U.S. history, will be hit by a major illness. “The United States should prepare itself because Donald Trump will fall seriously ill,” the shaman Juan de Díos García said, per Reuters.
Trump, who began his second U.S. presidency in January 2025, will turn 80 on June 14, 2026.
If the Republican serves his second term in full, he will be a record 82 years and 241 days old at its conclusion. So far, the oldest sitting president in U.S. history is Trump’s predecessor, Democrat Joe Biden, who was 82 years and 60 days old at the end of his single term in the White House.
In better news for Trump, the Peruvian shamans also predicted the fall of Nicolás Maduro, the Venezuelan president. “We see Nicolás Maduro defeated,” García said, per Reuters. “Nicolás Maduro will flee Venezuela.”
“We have visualized that next year this will happen”
Per the Associated Press, the shaman Ana María Simeón added: “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 visualized that next year this will happen.”
Trump’s administration has labelled Maduro’s Venezuelan regime “illegitimate” and accused the 63-year-old of heading up a “foreign terrorist organization”. During Trump’s second term as president, the U.S. has ramped up pressure on Venezuela through sanctions, naval blockades, and military strikes targeting alleged drug‑smuggling infrastructure.
Monday’s ceremony also saw the shamans predict the end of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2026. The group has in previous years also made such a prediction about the conflict, which began in 2014 before escalating eight years later, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor.
What have the shamans previously got right?
As is noted by AP’s César Barreto and India Grant, the Peruvian shamans’ “mixed record” includes some notable correct predictions. At the end of 2023, for example, they stated that Alberto Fujimori, the disgraced former president of Peru, would die during the following year.
Fujimori, who served around 16 years in prison for corruption and human-rights abuses, passed away at the age of 86 on Sep. 11, 2024, due to complications relating to tongue cancer.
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