Since last Friday (Jan. 19), Pope Francis has been on a tour all over Latin America, and while he was in Peru, he talked about the Amazon's native people. Reports from Al Jazeera was one of the main sources used to write this article.

Contaminated water

Governments in countries like Peru have a moral dilemma to face when they go to places where you can find gold, among other substances, that are very valuable. On one hand, they could improve Peruvian's economy. On the other hand, it contaminates the water indigenous people depend on, for living and surviving.

The mercury that gets into the water affects the poorest communities, and the Peruvian government does not lend a hand, instead blaming the indigenous people for being weak. To be clear, both legal and illegal mining is affecting the indigenous people, although the focus of this article is illegal mining.

According to Reuters, some rivers have so much mercury, that fish are no longer safe to eat. Over 250 miners die from mudslides or other unreported accidents. Businesses, both Peruvian and foreign, have special interests in gaining the minerals and, in most case, do not care about the people living nearby. In their defense, mining does give a lot of money to the country, and it also gives jobs to the miners, but the poor are the ones who suffer.

A similar situation is happening in Brazil.

How does Pope Francis help them in this situation?

According to Al Jazeera, about eighty percent of Peruvians are Catholic, making Pope Francis's appearance in Peru incredibly important for most of the population. His voice and opinions, as the Pope, have a huge effect in the international community, putting all eyes on how the Peruvian government handles Puerto Maldonado, where most of the illegal mining takes place.

Whenever a high authority, whether it is from Church or the United Nations, comes to Peru, there is always a protest from the population in order to get attention.

Allegations of Peru's corruption and Pope Francis comments while he was in Chile

In December, Peru's President, Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, was almost impeached over corruption charges.

According to the Washington Post and other sources, a week before the impeachment vote took place, "...documents from Odebrecht, a Brazilian construction company made payments of over $800,000 to the President's investment banking firm."

According to NPR, Pope Francis accused the victims of sexual assault of slander, because they are ruining churches and bishops in Chile. Pope Francis said, "There is not one shred of proof against him (Bishop Barros). It's all calumny. Is that clear?" A similar case from April 2017, backs up his claims in pedophilia.
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