Pope's Chile-Peru trip to include focus on indigenous people

VATICAN CITY – Pope Francis' weeklong visit to Chile and Peru in January is expected to include a focus on issues affecting indigenous people.

The Vatican on Monday released the itinerary for the pope's Jan. 15-22 trip, which will be Francis 21st foreign visit and his fifth to his home continent.

The schedule includes a day devoted to the Amazon and a visit to a southern Chilean region claimed by the indigenous Mapuche group.

The pope's trip is expected to cover issues important to Francis — poverty, migration and the environment— and to feature protocol visits, speeches to bishops and meetings with local Jesuits.

It also could create tension. Vandals burned a bus and scattered pamphlets last week to protest Francis' Jan. 17 visit to the region the Mapuche claim as ancestral territory.