Pope Leo crossing Peru for visits to Inca city, Amazon gateway

By Joshua McElwee

CUSCO, Peru, Nov 15 (Reuters) - Pope Leo is traversing the length of Peru on Sunday, the penultimate day of his South America tour, to visit a southern Andes Mountains city that was once the center of the Inca Empire and an eastern gateway to the Amazon rainforest.

Leo, the first Peruvian citizen to become pope, is on an emotional return to his adopted home and is traveling 2,270 km (1,410 miles) in 12 hours for four events in Cusco, the Inca Empire's capital, and Pucallpa, in the lowland Amazon jungle.

Church leaders hope the visits will allow more Peruvians to attend events with Leo, who has drawn the largest crowds of his papacy, some 12 million people across his 12-day, three-nation tour.

They also think Leo might address illegal logging in the Amazon, where gold mining has cleared some 140,000 hectares (540 square miles) of rainforest since 1984 and poisoned regional waterways, according to a 2025 report from the group Monitoring of the Andean Amazon Project.

As Leo took to an open-air popemobile shortly after his arrival in Cusco, enthusiastic crowds lined his route for miles, pressing against police barriers and holding personal signs for the pope to see. Volunteers held back the crowd wearing yellow shirts decorated with the logo "Friends of Leo."

The pope, originally from Chicago, lived for about 20 years in Peru as a missionary and holds US and Peruvian citizenship.

He started his travels on Sunday from Chiclayo, where he was bishop from 2015 to 2023, and will end the day in Lima, before leaving for Rome on Monday.

In Cusco, Leo was due to visit an archaeological site at the esplanade of Saqsaywaman, an ancient Inca fortress 3,700 meters (12,139 ft) above sea level whose stones were later used to build many of the city's churches. The Inca Empire dominated western South America from about 1438 to 1533, when Spanish conquistadors toppled it.

Rev. Julio Velazco Paz, the Cusco archdiocese's spokesperson, said the pope's visit was shining a light on "the richness of our faith, our culture, our traditions."

INDIGENOUS PEOPLE TO HIGHLIGHT LIVING CONDITIONS

In Pucallpa, home to the Shipibo-Konibo Indigenous people, locals hope Leo's arrival will draw attention to poor living conditions.

"For us, the pope's arrival is a source of great joy, but it is also a great opportunity to make our demands, our grievances, and our problems heard," said Cecilio Soria, an Indigenous human rights activist.

Leo's visit to high-altitude Cusco a month after undergoing lung cancer surgery has drawn some attention, as travelers visiting the city can experience altitude sickness.

The pope underwent surgery for lung adenocarcinoma, the most common form of lung cancer, on October 13. His doctors have said the cancer was localized and had not spread, and the pope will not require further treatment.

Medical experts have said the pope faces no special dangers on the trip, but may need to take rest breaks or use supplemental oxygen, as many travellers do.

Traveling to high altitude a few weeks after lung surgery is not unusual, said Dr. Stephen Cassivi, a professor of thoracic surgery at the Mayo Clinic, a nonprofit US medical center.