Pope Leo calls for healthcare to be 'accessible for all' during Uruguay visit

Pope Leo XIV on Friday defended universal healthcare after undergoing surgery for lung cancer as he began a 12-day tour of South America in "fairly good shape".

Leo's sixth international tour takes him to the continent that helped shape his priesthood, just three weeks after being operated for a tumour on his right lung.

The 71-year-old pontiff will visit Uruguay, Argentina and Peru on one of the most intense papal trips in decades, meeting political leaders, prisoners, the poor, as well as old friends.

Pope Leo embarks on Latin America trip with a first stop in Uruguay

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Thousands of people, some waving yellow-and-white Vatican flags, lined the seafront of Uruguay's capital Montevideo to greet him as he waved from a custom-made popemobile.

But the crowds were relatively sparse in Latin America's most secular country compared with Leo's recent visits to France and Spain.

Speaking in a half-empty Plaza Independencia, after being welcomed by left-wing President Yamandu Orsi, the pope lamented Uruguay's high suicide rates – among the highest in the world – and appealed for healthcare to be "accessible to all".

He said the care he received after his lung cancer diagnosis made him think of the "many men and women who lack the means to obtain a timely diagnosis" or receive treatment.

Read morePope Leo XIV needs no further lung cancer treatment, Vatican says

'One of my many homes'

The Church's first US-born pope – who has repeatedly clashed with US President Donald Trump over the Middle East war – also spoke about voting in this week's US midterm elections.

His mail-in ballot made history as he was the first pope ever known to vote in a political election.

"I'm proud to be an American and to exercise the right" to vote, he said.

The pope has taken on Peruvian as well as his American citizenship, having spent almost two decades in Peru as a missionary and forming a deep attachment to the continent.

He referred to Peru as "one of my many homes" in his remarks on Friday and said he was looking forward to seeing "old things, new things and most of all the people" there.

Leo begins his trip in Uruguay, Latin America's most secular country – and one of the wealthiest  – where a tight security operation is in place, with some 5,000 police officers and 1,000 soldiers mobilised.

He will be driven along Montevideo's waterfront promenade in a custom-made popemobile, before meeting left-wing President Yamandu Orsi and receiving the keys to the city.

Cardinal Daniel Sturla, Archbishop of Montevideo, told AFP there was "widespread interest in the pope's visit that goes well beyond the confines of the Catholic Church", with tickets for masses in Paysandu and Florida quickly running out.

The liberal nation is at odds with the centuries-old institution on same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia – which was legalised last year – and Leo is expected to appeal to protect life as well as traditional family values.

The pope may also talk about mental health, particularly when visiting the Casavalle neighborhood in Montevideo, which is notorious for high levels of poverty and extreme violence.

'Symbolism and emotion'

He will travel on Sunday to Argentina, the homeland of his predecessor Pope Francis, who disappointed many Argentinians by not returning to visit during his papacy.

On Friday, the pope said he was going to visit Argentina "with great joy", adding that it was the country where Francis "did not manage to go".

Read morePope Leo leaves on emotional South America tour weeks after surgery

Leo's trip is seen as a double homecoming of sorts, US-based Vatican expert Christopher White told AFP.

"History's first Latin American pope, Francis, never returned to his homeland. Leo, a Peruvian citizen, now carries forward that mantle and legacy," said White, author of a book on Pope Leo.

The South America trip culminates in Peru, and Leo's arrival there on Wednesday will be "a moment full of symbolism and emotion", he said.

The country has been gripped by pope fever. In Lima, vendors are selling T-shirts and rosaries with his image on them, while Leo bread is on sale in bakeries. Inmates in a women's prison are crafting dolls in his likeness.

A towering, 14-metre (46-foot) statue of Leo has also been erected in the port city of Callao, which he is to visit.

The trip will take him to the former Inca capital of Cusco and the Amazon rainforest, but the pope will also revisit his former life as Robert Francis Prevost, from a supper with priests from his old diocese of Chiclayo to a private visit to a chapel he helped rebuild.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP)