The following comes from a December 12 AFP article:

Pope Francis will visit Mexico’s violence-plagued states of Michoacan and Chihuahua and the impoverished region of Chiapas during a February 12-18 visit, the pontiff announced during mass Saturday at St Peter’s.

Following his homily Francis said he would be in Mexico “next February 13… to venerate in her sanctuary” Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico’s City’s basilica honoring the country’s patron saint. It is the most-visited Marian shrine in the world.

The western state of Michoacan has been in thrall to a powerful drugs cartel while the northern state of Chihuahua is home to Ciudad Juarez, a city at the US border once known as Mexico’s murder capital, notably of women, though the murder rate has dramatically dropped in recent years.

The southern state of Chiapas is one of the country’s poorest regions with a large indigenous population. It is also a major transit route for migrants who illegally cross the Chiapas-Guatemala border.