Pope will wrap up Argentina tour with a visit to a prison and a shrine before heading home to Peru

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) — Pope Leo XIV will wrap up his visit to Argentina with two poignant moments on Wednesday — a meeting with inmates at a prison with a history linked to the country’s military dictatorship, and a final Mass at Argentina’s national shrine.

Both sites have important sentimental connections to Leo’s predecessor, Pope Francis. But Leo's final Argentine stops will pale in comparison to the emotional highlight of his South American trip, when he returns home later Wednesday to Peru.

A massive national party is planned to greet Leo, who spent over two decades as a missionary priest and bishop in Peru. He is known to Peruvians as Padre Robert and is beloved for ministering to poor communities, especially in times of crisis.

In Buenos Aires, Leo was scheduled to visit the Devoto Prison, where Francis often ministered when he was archbishop of Buenos Aires. Francis celebrated Masses, visited cellblocks housing inmates with AIDS and washed the feet of prisoners during the annual Holy Week ritual.

The prison, inaugurated in 1927, is currently undergoing its definitive closure and transfer of its more than 1,000 inmates to a new penitentiary complex.

During the last military dictatorship (1976–1983), it functioned as a clandestine detention and torture center and was designated as a Memory Site in 2012, to ensure the military repression is not forgotten.

Human rights activist lawyers have petitioned the courts to prevent any decision involving the sale or disposal of the prison’s land and facilities once all inmates are transferred, saying “the space must be preserved until the investigations regarding the crimes against humanity that occurred” there are finalized.

In 1978, 65 common prisoners were killed in a massacre that was later named the Masacre del Pabellón Séptimo (Seventh Pavilion Massacre). The military dictatorship officially covered up the incident, but the courts proved that it was an act of state violence.

In December 2025, a federal court handed down 25-year prison sentences to former prison chiefs Juan Carlos Ruiz and Horacio Martín Galíndez for the torture inflicted on 153 detainees and the deaths of 65 of them as a result of the fire that broke out during the massacre and the violent repression inflicted on the inmates. The convicted men were over 90 years old when they received their sentences.

Leo has carried on Francis’ legacy of meeting with inmates during his foreign trips, to remind them that they are not alone and are still beloved children of God. His last such visit, at a prison in Equatorial Guinea, provided some of the most chilling moments of his pontificate, when the inmates were forced to sing and dance for him in the pouring rain.

After the prison visit, Leo will make a pilgrimage to the Basilica de Nuestra Señora de Luján, dedicated to Argentina’s patron saint.

The municipality of Luján, about 72 kilometers (45 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires, urged pilgrims to arrive days in advance due to the sheer scale of the event and the extensive security and logistical deployment.

The basilica hosts one of the greatest demonstrations of faith and religious devotion in Argentina. Each October, hundreds of thousands of pilgrims walk there from Buenos Aires and other nearby towns to give thanks or make requests to the Virgin of Luján, to whom Francis was particularly devoted.

This year’s pilgrimage took place under persistent rain. And yet more than 2.8 million people took part, a record for the shrine, municipal authorities said.

Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.

Pope Leo XIV watches folk dancers during a youth prayer vigil at Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, on the fifth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Faithful hold candles and rosary beads during a youth prayer vigil with Pope Leo XIV at Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, on the fifth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV, flanked by Buenos Aires Archbishop Jorge Ignacio García Cuerva, left, holds a candle during a youth prayer vigil at Monumento de los Españoles in Buenos Aires, on the fifth day of his twelve-day apostolic journey to South America, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini)

Pope Leo XIV waves to faithful as he arrives to lead a youth prayer vigil in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Tuesday, Nov. 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Rodrigo Abd)

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) — Millions of Spain’s workers are striking Wednesday to demand that the government remedy the nation’s housing crisis less than three weeks before a national election that could catapult the far right to power.

Spain’s first general strike in 14 years is expected to cause delays to the widely used public transport system and lead to the slowdown or shuttering of businesses, factories and shops across the eurozone’s fourth largest economy.

Between workers, activists, politicians and ordinary Spaniards, the groups have very different interests in Wednesday's walkout.

The average rent for Spain has almost doubled in the last 10 years, eating into household budgets and angering voters.

Public anger over housing reached a boiling point following the nationally televised eviction of an 87-year-old woman from her home in Madrid last month. The subsequent death of Maricarmen, as the woman became known, caused even more indignation and solidified her as a symbol of Spaniards who feel they pay too much on rent and can’t even dream of homeownership.

Housing activists leveraged the uproar over Maricarmen's eviction to call for the general strike. They soon won the backing of Spain's two main unions, UGT and CCOO.

The housing activists want several measures, including the elimination of tourist apartments, a crackdown on real estate speculation and protection for renters in the form of automatic renewals of leases.

The UGT and CCOO unions are demanding more government intervention in the housing market and a new minimum wage agreement through talks with the business owners' association.

The strike’s official slogan is “Salaries. Housing. Prices.”

The nationwide protests over the eviction of Maricarmen propelled Spain’s government to push through emergency measures to limit evictions and help tenants, but right-wing parties in the Parliament refused to ratify them on the grounds they would provoke a flight of properties from the rental market.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez responded by doubling down politically and called the election on Oct. 5, hoping to earn four more years in power for his left-wing coalition.

But then came a brutal high-speed train collision — Spain's second deadly rail disaster of the year. That collision, which killed 69 people, has dominated Spanish news and created a drag on Sánchez's campaign just when he had hoped to build momentum.

The strike, says analyst Oriol Bartomeus, is an opportunity for Sánchez's Socialists and the other parties on the Left that he will need to remain in power.

“The Socialists need for the strike to be a success and for there not to be any violence so that the election campaign can swing back to being about housing, back in the framework of Maricarmen,” Bartomeus, a professor of political science at the Autonomous University of Barcelona, told The Associated Press.

On Thursday, the government will again try to have a reduced interim Parliament ratify the two housing decrees that the full lower chamber rejected last month.

Sánchez posted a long video on social media this week, in which he lauded the prior social policies like the 40-hour work week and national health insurance that were the fruit of the workers' movement and the right to strike.

“It wasn’t easy, but they changed Spain,” Sánchez said, while warning that right-wing parties would bring austerity and underfunded social services.

Verónica Martínez, spokesperson for Sumar, the junior member of the government, separately said “the Left needs the workers of this country to mobilize. Rights are first won on the streets and then later in the institution.”

The traditional conservative Popular Party and the far-right Vox are against any government intervention in the housing market other than incentivizing construction of new homes.

They also both argue that the unions are playing politics and trying to help Sánchez stay in office, with months of polling showing voters leaning toward the Right.

“This strike is not a general strike; it is an electoral strike,” Popular Party spokesperson Miguel Tellado said Tuesday. “It is not against the government in power, but rather against the government to be.”

But the right-wing parties, which already have joined forces to govern in some Spanish regions, could benefit from the strike if it descends into street violence, according to Bartomeus.

Strikes can result in hardcore union members pressuring shops and offices into closing. Spain, like other European countries, often has peaceful public protests that radical groups take advantage of to clash with police and destroy property.

“The Popular Party and Vox both want the strike to be a flop and to end in scenes of burning dumpsters and shattered shop windows," Bartomeus said. “That way the next morning they can say, ‘This is chaos and we are coming to establish order.’”

A woman walks through Atocha train station during a nationwide general strike over the country's housing crisis in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Protesters block a road during a nationwide general strike over the country's housing crisis in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)

Police scuffle with protesters during a nationwide general strike over the country's housing crisis in Madrid, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Protesters block the gate of a bus depot during a nationwide general strike over the country's housing crisis in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Emilio Morenatti)

Protesters block a road with burning tires during a nationwide general strike over the country's housing crisis in Barcelona, Spain, Wednesday, Nov. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Joan Mateu)

Police officers stand guard as workers clean the Puerta del Sol square after the removal of the protest camp site that was set up to demand stronger laws to protect renters, in Madrid, Spain, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Manu Fernandez)