Pope Leo heads to Milei’s Argentina as tensions loom over austerity, Iran

MONTEVIDEO — Pope Leo heads on Sunday to Argentina on the second leg ​of a 12-day tour across South America, where the first U.S.-born pope will give a closely watched speech to Argentine ‌President Javier Milei, a libertarian seen as a close ally of Donald Trump.

The address may underscore tensions between the Vatican and Milei, whose austerity agenda has been criticized by the Church for hitting the poorest most and who has strongly supported the Iran war, which Leo has criticized, to Trump’s ire.

Leo, on an ambitious three-country tour through November 17, is arriving ​in Argentina from Uruguay, where he urged South American countries to tackle regional issues together and set an example for the value of patient ​diplomacy over conflict.

The 71-year-old pontiff, who is making one of the most intense foreign trips of a Catholic leader in ⁠decades less than a month after undergoing lung cancer surgery, is the first Catholic leader to visit Argentina since 1987 and will tour four cities until ​Wednesday.

Milei swept to power in 2023 after a run of center-left Peronist rule, campaigning with a chainsaw as a symbol ​of the deep cuts to state spending he pledged to make to…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business