Susy Aponte Polo

Susy Ysabel Aponte Polo, known across Peru's digital public as La China Polo, was a regional investigative journalist and political candidate whose work mixed YouTube reporting with a run for the Áncash regional government. She was shot and killed on 19 September 2026 during a campaign stop near the market in Caraz, in the province of Huaylas, Áncash. She was 43. A second person was also wounded and taken to Hospital San Juan de Dios de Caraz.

Aponte Polo hosted China Polo Dominical on YouTube, where she published investigations and accusations about organized crime, illegal mining, public works, and alleged corruption involving local and regional authorities in Áncash. The channel gave her a wide digital audience and made her a familiar, polarizing voice in regional politics. In 2026 she ran for the Gobierno Regional de Áncash with the Movimiento Independiente Regional Socios por Áncash and took part in a Jurado Nacional de Elecciones debate for regional candidates on 15 September.

In the week before her death she posted a video saying she had been harassed and threatened, including calls she said came from three different prisons. She linked the intimidation to her reporting and said she would keep publishing. Hours before the attack she had promoted a planned Saturday night broadcast that was to address local politics and water management issues in the region.

The killing drew immediate statements from Peru's electoral authorities, the Defensoría del Pueblo, the Consejo de la Prensa Peruana, ONPE, the Jurado Nacional de Elecciones, the Ministry of the Interior, and the Gobierno Regional de Áncash, which asked for stronger protection for candidates. Prosecutors opened a preliminary investigation for feminicide. Police reported the detention of a foreign national found with a pistol. Motives and full responsibility remained under investigation as of the first days after the attack.

Exact birth date was not published in the major English and Spanish news accounts consulted for this memorial, so no invented birthday is recorded here. What is clear is the outline of a communicator who treated social video as a newsroom and then carried that same confrontational style into electoral politics. Her death, days before the 4 October 2026 regional and municipal elections, became a national story about press risk and candidate security in Peru.

This memorial remembers Susy Aponte Polo as a journalist candidate who kept broadcasting after threats, and who died while asking voters for their trust in the streets of Caraz. Light a candle for her, and for safer public life for reporters and candidates who speak out.