Pope's S. American visit to cast light on region's indigenous

SANTIAGO, Chile (AFP) – When Pope Francis steps off his Alitalia plane at the start of a visit to South America next week, he will cast a rare global spotlight on the plight of the region's indigenous people.

Francis begins his week-long trip in Chile's capital Santiago on Monday, but will also visit Temuco, 800 kilometers (500 miles) to the south, for a meeting with representatives of the indigenous Mapuche community. The Mapuche, Chile's largest ethnic group, are locked in a sometimes bloody conflict with a government it has long accused of discrimination and abuse, and are also demanding the restitution of traditional tribal lands in private ownership. "The program of the Holy Father's visit reflects his concern for an area that has experienced major tensions, with whom he wants to share a message of peace and where he seeks to bring some words of hope," said the national coordinator for the visit, Fernando Ramos. Nearly 400,000 people are expected at Tumuco's Maquehue airbase where the pope will preside over a special "mass for the integration of the peoples" on Wednesday. The mass will feature a Mapuche prayer to honor the first inhabitants of Chile and Argentina. After the mass, Francis will meet with a small group of indigenous people in Temuco. It is unclear who will attend but organizers say radicals would not be invited. For the indigenous leaders it will be an occasion to "make visible" the Mapuche cause amid fears the incoming rightist government of Sebastian Pinera will harden the state's stance against the Mapuche. Reduced today to below 700,000 people, out of a population of 17 million Chileans, the Mapuches have higher poverty levels than the rest of the Chilean population after being reduced to living on about five percent of the land they held before the arrival of Spanish colonizers. Francis is scheduled to leave for the Peruvian capital, Lima, on the second leg of his South American visit on Thursday.