Bob, during JPII and Benedict's 'reign', politicians or representatives of governments who wished a private audience with the Pope, had to apply and then were given a date which would be suitable. That date could be weeks or months ahead.

This modus operandi applied to all governments with the exception of one - The United States of America. They were accorded 24/7 access. Now we know why. 

You are absolutely correct to state that the Vatican were up to their necks in what the US was doing in Latin and South America. Romero visited JPII and Ratzinger armed with a dossier of photographs of the disfigured bodies of hundreds of murdered El Salvadoran Catholics and proof of US involvement in these deaths. The gruesome twosome ignored Romero's pleas for support. There is film footage of him leaving the Vatican in tears in the knowledge that the people of El Salvador had been abandoned by their Church. Romero was shot dead six days later.