When Pope John Paul II lands in Mexico City this afternoon, an estimated 38,667 church volunteers will join hands and form a security cordon to accompany him on the approximately 20 km that separate the airport from the papal nuncio's residence. The Pope's security is a key issue in the planning of the four-day visit, with 6,000 presidential guards assigned to the task, along with a team of black belt karate experts and dozens of sharpshooters along the different public routes.
A Mexican army colonel has been appointed to each of the three open-air venues, where no member of the public is allowed to come within 25 metres of the Pontiff.
The mysterious 12-man martial arts squad, "trained in Israel, Colombia and Spain" according to a PR document, will form the final barrier between the Pontiff and the public.
Organisers have banned backpacks, bottles, video cameras and any other items that could be used as a missile, while metal detectors will guard against firearms.
The city's 623 hotels are booked out, 44,000 rooms snapped up by some of the estimated one million visitors.
City police stations agreed to open their doors to visitors from around the country, but few people are likely to take up the offer, given the universal distrust of the nation's security forces.
The Pope will sign the final documents of the regional synod, an assessment of the Catholic Church's 500 years of evangelisation in the region. On Saturday morning he will visit Mexico City's basilica, the sacred shrine to the Guadalupe Virgin, who first appeared to a peasant boy in 1531, beginning a transformation which has left 90 per cent of Mexico's 90 million people professing the faith. The national media has given blanket coverage to the visit, publishing complex diagrams of the Pope-mobile, the access points for each venue and even a page-long study of a gold-rimmed chair, built by local carpenters for the visiting Vatican leader.
Just minutes after Atlanta broke a losing run of league games, beating Morelia 3-2 at the giant Aztec football stadium last week, 70 church workers moved in to build a special altar at the football stadium, where the Pope will say Mass on Monday evening. The altar is 19 metres wide, with two huge video screens behind and a niche for the choir of 1,500 singers. Public health authorities are braced for a testing four-day period, as six million people prepare to congregate outside the basilica, hoping for a glimpse of the Pope as he enters the building.
Elsewhere, church officials sorted through hundreds of gifts sent to the Pope by wellwishers, taking a selection for display at the papal nuncio's residence, where he will stay.
Mexico City's sanitation authorities have requested that people in wheelchairs or suffering "contagious diseases" stay away from the events, as upwards of 10 million people are expected to follow the Pope's steps. Two million people alone are likely to gather in the vicinity of the Aztec stadium, with half that number again gathering on Saturday evening at the Rodriguez Brothers racetrack, where they will spend 24 hours before hearing Mass the next day. Mr Antonio Macedo, caretaker of the Virgin of Guadalupe Basilica, made a public appeal to Catholics, requesting they "let the Pope sleep". The last visit was marked by noisy night-time serenades.
Paddy Agnew adds from Rome: The North-South divide, the rights of indigenous peoples and the desirability of a peaceful resolution to international disputes are likely to be some of the main themes touched on by the Pope during his visits to Mexico and the US, the high point of which will probably be his meeting next Tuesday in St Louis, Missouri, with President Clinton.
On this 85th overseas visit of his 20-year pontificate, the 78-year-old Pope will once again be defying his all too apparent physical frailty as he sets off on a seven-day trip that takes him from the 21
Celius warmth of Mexico City to St Louis, where temperatures recently touched as low as minus 20
Celsius. Senior Curia figures this week suggested that the Pope will use his meeting with Mr Clinton, not only to reiterate recent criticisms of the Anglo-US military raids on Iraq, but also to call on the US President to end economic embargoes such as those imposed on Cuba, Libya and Iraq.
He is also expected to call on Mr Clinton to consider the implementation of a moratorium on the death penalty next year by way of a first step to the eventual abolition of capital punishment in the US.
The Pope has, on occasion, issued clemency appeals in relation to specific death sentence cases.