Pope Leo XIV urges end to violence during visit to remote Peruvian Andes town

Pope Leo XIV called for an end to violence in Peru during a visit to Santa Cruz de Succhabamba, a remote Andean town of about 6,000 people, Al Jazeera reported.

The pope arrived by helicopter. A local band greeted him with a song whose words were "Pope Leo, welcome home." About 20,000 people attended an outdoor Mass he celebrated there.

In his remarks, the pope said that selfishness, injustice and evil are not overcome by brutality. He said they are overcome through prayer, patience and perseverance in speaking out against what is wrong.

Pope Leo, who was born in Chicago as Robert Francis Prevost, holds both US and Peruvian citizenship. He spent about two decades working in Peru as a missionary priest and bishop, and he served as bishop of Chiclayo from 2015 to 2023. He told the crowd that rural communities he once served are being emptied by migration and falling birth rates.

The visit comes as Peru has seen a sharp rise in violent crime. The country's homicide rate, meaning the number of killings per 100,000 people, climbed from 5.8 to 10.7 over the past five years. Reported extortion cases, in which criminals demand money under threat, rose from 2,421 in 2019 to 26,734 in 2025.

President Keiko Fujimori took office in July after promising to tackle crime. In August she declared a state of emergency in Lima, and in September she declared one in prisons holding inmates linked to criminal organisations.

Peru has also joined the Shield of the Americas, a US-led regional coalition for joint military operations against drug cartels.