BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (AP) – When Lidia Guerrero met with Pope Francis in Rome last year, the Argentine native told her he knew all about Guerrero’s son, who has been on death row in Texas for 19 years.
“I’ve prayed so much for that young man from Cordoba,” she says Francis told her, referring to the hometown of Victor Hugo Saldano.
The short meeting in February 2014 left Guerrero with more hope than she has felt in years about the future of her son, who she says is guilty of murder but has been driven to insanity on death row.
Francis, an Argentine native, is a staunch critic of the death penalty. Like most countries in Latin America, Argentina does not have capital punishment.
Death penalty opponents are hoping that Francis pressures lawmakers to abolish it when he visits the United States next month, and Guerrero is praying that the pope intervenes on behalf of her son.