Bee 'rescuer' in Peruvian capital plies his trade with passion, free of charge

LIMA, Peru (AP) — Alfredo Santiago has a unique job in Peru 's capital city of Lima: he's a bee rescuer.

The 35-year-old began as a beekeeper but added rescuing the stinging insects to his services. He often checks his cellphone for messages from people seeking help removing hives from house windows, playgrounds or even graveyards.

“I do it out of passion, to defend these animals that are so important to nature,” he said.

Once he has gotten enough requests, Santiago dons his white, one-piece beekeeper suit, takes a smoker and a wooden box and hits the streets of Lima, a city of 10 million.

Sometimes Santiago arrives at a location and people have already killed the bees. But when he’s able to rescue them, he takes them back to his home on the outskirts of Lima, where he lives as a beekeeper and sells honey.

He is apparently the only person in the city doing the job for free. “It is volunteer work. Some plant trees, others collect abandoned dogs or cats,” said Santiago, whose parents are also beekeepers.

“I am the driver, the one who carries the box, the operator, the one who (secures himself with) harnesses, the one who takes the photo and uploads it to the networks,” he said as he checks out the dark green car that he drives around the city.

Recently, Santiago had to motor more than 80 kilometers (50 miles) from one side of Lima to the other to find a hive in a house's garden. He also went to a graveyard after a man who had gone to bury his mother was stung by some bees, and they discovered that the insects had found a place on a wooden coffin.

Santiago says he gets around 100 requests a year to come and remove bee hives, and he estimates that he has rescued around 4 million bees since he started his unpaid job in 2020. People had begun to learn about him on social media.

Life for bees in Lima is not easy because the heavily populated city doesn't have lots of parks or green spaces.

On the large patio of his house, Santiago has more than two dozen green wooden boxes in which more than 400,000 bees live and “recover” after being rescued. There is honey over two plates, while some drops of water come out of a tap that fall on a piece of wood. All for the bees. After a few months, sometimes six, he takes them to the Andean forests of Peru, more than 225 kilometers (140 miles) from Lima, where his parents live and also take care of bees.

It's a family affair: Santiago said he's already thinking of buying a small beekeeper's suit for his 3-year-old daughter.

Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Beekeeper Alfredo Santiago, who also rescues bees, uses a bee smoker before opening a beehive, on the patio of his home, on the outskirts of Lima, Peru, Friday, Nov. 29, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago carries a box containing a beehive recovered from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Beekeeper and rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

Bee rescuer Alfredo Santiago removes a colony of bees from a house garden, in Lima, Peru, Wednesday, Nov. 27, 2024. (AP Photo/Guadalupe Pardo)

BRUSSELS (AP) — The chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court has stepped down temporarily pending the outcome of an investigation into allegations of sexual misconduct, the court announced Friday.

Karim Khan has categorically denied accusations that he tried for more than a year to coerce a female aide into a sexual relationship and groped her against her will.

The ICC's announcement was welcomed by women's rights groups, who had called for Khan to step down after the allegations emerged last year.

“In any other professional setting, someone facing such serious allegations would have been expected to step down months ago,” said Eimear Shine, a spokesperson for The Hague-based Women’s Initiatives for Gender Justice.

An investigation by The Associated Press last year found that two court employees, in whom the alleged victim confided, reported the alleged misconduct in May 2024 to the court’s independent watchdog. That was a few weeks before Khan sought arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu, his defense minister and three Hamas leaders on war crimes charges.

The watchdog said it interviewed the woman and ended its inquiry after five days when she opted against filing a formal complaint. Khan himself wasn’t questioned at the time.

While the watchdog could not determine wrongdoing, it nonetheless urged Khan in a memo to minimize contact with the woman to protect the rights of all involved and safeguard the court’s integrity.

The ICC statement on Friday said Khan “communicated his decision to take leave until the end” of an external investigation being carried by the Office of Internal Oversight Services, the U.N. internal watchdog.

The court’s deputy prosecutors will be in charge of managing the prosecutor’s office while Khan is on leave, the statement said.

The work of the court will continue, according to Danya Chaikel, the ICC representative from the International Federation for Human Rights. “The cases and investigations have been carried out by professionals,” she told the AP.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration filed sanctions against Khan in February in relation to his Israel warrants. The sanctions are hampering work on a broad array of investigations at the court.

FILE - Karim Khan, Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court looks up prior to a press conference in The Hague, Netherlands, July 3, 2023. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)