SILAO, Mexico (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI headed to Cuba on Monday, hoping to inspire the same outpouring of faith on the communist-run island as he did in Mexico’s conservative Catholic heartland.

Crowds waving flags and Vatican-yellow balloons cheered Benedict at the airport and mariachi bands played as he left Spanish-speaking Latin America’s most Roman Catholic country and headed for its least.

“My brief but intense visit to Mexico is now coming to an end. Yet this is not the end of my affection and my closeness to a country so very dear to me,” he said on the tarmac.

“I wish to reiterate clearly and with vigour a plea to the Mexican people to remain faithful to yourselves, not to let yourselves be intimidated by the powers of evil,” he said, apparently alluding to drug violence and corruption. He urged Mexicans “to be valiant and to work to ensure that the sap of your Christian roots may nourish your present and your future.”

Benedict’s first stop in Cuba is Santiago, the island’s second largest city and home to the Virgin of Charity of Cobre, a tiny wooden statue that is revered by Cubans, Catholic and not.

The pope will celebrate an open-air Mass Monday evening in Santiago’s main plaza then pray at the sanctuary housing the statue Tuesday before heading to Havana, where he will meet with Cuban President Raul Castro – and presumably his brother Fidel.

Benedict’s three-day stay in Cuba will of course spark comparisons to Pope John Paul II’s historic 1998 tour, when Fidel Castro shed his army fatigues for a suit and tie to greet the pope at Havana’s airport and where John Paul uttered the now-famous words: “May Cuba, with all its magnificent potential, open itself up to the world, and may the world open itself up to Cuba.”

Those comparisons were also evident in Mexico, which had claimed John Paul as its own during his five visits over a nearly 27-year pontificate. But with his first visit to Mexico, Benedict appeared to lay to rest the impression that he is a distant, cold pontiff who can never compare to the charisma and personal connection forged by his predecessor.

“Some young people rejected the pope, saying he has an angry face. But now they see him like a grandfather,” said Cristian Roberto Cerda Reynoso, 17, a seminarian from Leon who attended Benedict’s Sunday Mass. “I see the youth filled with excitement and enthusiasm.”

Each day, the pope addressed the issue of drug cartel violence, which has killed more than 47,000 people since President Felipe Calderon launched a militarised offensive against the cartels at the end of 2006.

Benedict also charmed the crowd at Mass by donning a sombrero for his popemobile tour through the estimated 350,000 people. He put on another one later Sunday night when he was serenaded by a mariachi band as he returned to the school where he has been staying.

“We saw a lot of happiness in his face. We are used to seeing him with a harder appearance, but this time he looked happier, smiling,” said Esther Villegas, a 36-year-old cosmetics vendor. “A lot of people didn’t care for him enough before, but now he has won us over.”

While Cubans eagerly awaited Benedict’s arrival, the political overtones on the second leg of his trip were far greater than what he encountered in Mexico.

Cuba’s single-party, Communist government never outlawed religion, but it expelled priests and closed religious schools upon Fidel Castro’s takeover of Cuba in 1959. Tensions eased in the early 1990s when the government removed references to atheism in the constitution and let believers of all faiths join the Communist Party.

John Paul’s 1998 visit further warmed relations.

But problems remain. Despite years of lobbying, the church has virtually no access to state-run radio or television, is not allowed to administer schools, and has not been granted permission to build new places of worship. The island of 11.2 million people has just 361 priests. Before 1959 there were 700 priests for a population of 6 million.

The Catholic Church, however, is now the most influential independent institution in the country, thanks in no small part to Cardinal Jaime Ortega, the archbishop of Havana. He has negotiated with Raul Castro for the release of political prisoners, given the government advice on economic policy and allowed church magazines to publish increasingly frank articles about the need for change.

In the weeks leading up to Benedict’s arrival, the government cracked down on dissidents with detentions. But on Sunday, the dissident group known as the Ladies in White held its customary weekly protest outside a Havana church without incident.

The Vatican has said the pope has no plans to meet with the dissidents.