Pope Asks That Argentina Avoid “Mexicanization”

BUENOS AIRES – Pope Francis expressed his concern about the growing drug trafficking in Argentina in a letter to Buenos Aires legislator Gustavo Vera, in which he asked that Argentine citizens “avoid the Mexicanization” of their country.

“I was talking with some Mexican bishops and the matter is terrifying,” the pontiff said in the letter posted on the Web site of the non-governmental organization La Alameda, headed by Vera.

“I see your tireless work going full steam ahead. I often ask God to protect you and all those of La Alameda,” Pope Francis said.

The letter was an answer to a previous message from Vera about the constant growth of drug trafficking in Argentina and informing the pontiff about the denunciations he is about to launch through the NGO, whose mission is the fight against people trafficking and slave labor.

The lawmaker and the pope frequently exchange letters, since they have kept up a long-standing friendship, and Vera even visited Francis in Rome and spent a week with him at the papal residence at Santa Marta in 2013.