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

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CHICLAYO, Peru, Nov 15 - Pope Leo will traverse the length of Peru on Sunday, the penultimate day of his South America tour, visiting a southern Andes Mountains city that was once…

CHICLAYO, Peru, Nov 15 - Pope Leo will traverse the length of Peru on Sunday, the penultimate day of his South America tour, visiting 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 will travel 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.

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

He will start 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 will also 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 would highlight "the richness of our faith, our culture, our traditions."

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

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