Pope Francis dedicated a special part of his pontificate to Latin America

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Latin America occupied a special place in pope Francisco’s agenda, with seven trips that included ten countries of the region. His first international trip was to Brazil, shortly after his election, and his last Latin American visit was to panama in January 2019.

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00:00Latin America held a special place in Pope Francis' agenda with seven trips that included

00:1610 countries in the region. His first international trip was to Brazil shortly after his election

00:21and his last Latin American visit was to Panama in January 2019.

00:25Francis, the first pope in history born in Latin America, had in this region some of the priorities

00:34of his pontificate, but he also found enormous challenges and limitations. During his visit to

00:40Cuba, Francis met with Commander Fidel Castro, although it was a private meeting, it was an

00:45important moment because of his strong condemnation of the U.S. blockade against the island. The

00:50Supreme Pontiff also played a key role in the diplomatic rapprochement between Havana and

00:55Washington. During his visit to Brazil, the pope criticized the inaction of the clergy,

01:00called for the recovery of the faithful and asked Catholics to go to the favelas of the cities,

01:05one of which he visited on that occasion. With gestures such as his support for peace in the

01:10region, Pope Francis gave the Vatican a leading role in peace negotiations such as the case of

01:15Colombia to seek an end to the armed conflict that plagues the country. Francis toured the

01:20Bolivian cities of El Alto, La Paz and Santa Cruz. In this country, the pope spoke of the sea and

01:26asked forgiveness for the oppression against indigenous peoples. In the midst of a serious

01:31political and economic crisis resulting from the U.S. blockade against Venezuela, the pope took steps to

01:37establish a dialogue between the government of Nicolas Maduro and the opposition. Bergoglio took over

01:43the leadership of a church with great challenges and crises, two of which directly involved Latin America,

01:48the fall in the number of faithful and sexual abuse scandals within the church.

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