LIMA (AP) — A group of shamans gathered Monday on a sacred hill overlooking the capital of Peru to carry out an annual ritual in which they make their predictions for the coming year.

Dressed in ponchos and traditional Andean headdresses, the shamans performed their ceremony on the top of the Miraflores hill, from where they made their predictions about the course of international relations, current conflicts and the fate of world dignitaries.

In the ceremony on Monday, the shamans said that Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro will be removed from office and added that global conflicts, such as the war in Ukraine, will continue.

“We have asked for Maduro to leave, to retire, so that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, can manage to remove him, and we have visualized that for next year it will happen,” said shaman Ana María Simeón.

The group has mixed results when it comes to its annual predictions.

Last year they warned that a “nuclear war” would break out between Israel and Gaza, where there is currently a ceasefire.

However, the group correctly predicted in December 2023 that former Peruvian president Alberto Fujimori, who had been imprisoned for human rights abuses, would die within the next 12 months.

Fujimori died of cancer in September 2024 at the age of 86.

Before Monday's ceremony, the shamans gathered to drink hallucinogenic concoctions derived from native plants -- such as Ayahuasca and the San Pedro cactus -- that are believed to give them the power to predict the future.

During the ceremony they laid out blankets with yellow flowers, coca leaves, swords and other objects, asking for positive energy for the new year.

After dancing in circles and playing ancestral instruments, the Shamans called for peace in the Middle East, the end of the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and the fall of President Maduro.

Prayers to the gods, performed among flowers and incense, as well as dances, are intended to encourage leaders to make good decisions.

Shamans also predicted natural disasters, such as earthquakes and weather events.

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This story was translated from English by an AP editor with the help of a generative artificial intelligence tool.