QUITO, Ecuador — Latin America’s first pope returned to Spanish-speaking South America for the first time Sunday, stressing the need to protect the poor and the environment from exploitation and to foster dialogue among all sectors of society.

Children in traditional dress greeted Francis at Mariscal Sucre airport outside Ecuador’s capital, the wind blowing off his skullcap as he descended from the plane following a 13-hour flight from Rome.

In a speech in front of President Rafael Correa, Francis signaled some of the key themes for the visit: the need to care for society’s most marginal, guarantee socially responsible economic development and defend the Earth against profit-at-all-cost development that he says harms the poor the most.

It’s a message that is particularly relevant for Ecuador, a Pacific nation of 15 million people. While oil has brought Ecuador unparalleled revenues in recent years, the accompanying deforestation and pollution have stained its vast swaths of Amazonian rain forest where many indigenous peoples live.

Falling world prices for oil and minerals, though, are threatening to fray the generous social safety net woven by Correa, who has been buffeted for nearly a month by the most serious anti-government street protests of his nearly nine years in power. Along Francis’ motorcade route into Quito, some onlookers shouted “Correa out!” and gave a thumbs’ down gesture.

The “slum pope” chose to visit Ecuador, Bolivia and Paraguay because they are among the poorest and most marginal nations of a region that claims 40 percent of the world’s Catholics. He’s skipping his homeland of Argentina to avoid papal entanglement in this year’s presidential election.


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