Asunción: Demonstration against pandemic management ends with violent incidents in Paraguay | International

A demonstration against the management of the pandemic by the government of Mario Abdo Benítez was severely repressed by the police this Friday in Asunción. The incidents left one dead and at least 20 injured among civilians and men in uniform, authorities said. Previously, the Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, had resigned, asked about the management of the health policy against the pandemic in which corruption and the lack of drugs and vaccines against covid-19 are criticized.

Two hours before the start of the demonstration, the protesters, or around 10,000 people in total, were expelled with tear gas and rubber bullets by riot police, leading to a pitched battle at heart of the Paraguayan capital. About ten masked men threw stones at officers near Congress and they responded. A woman with her baby was sprayed with tear gas as she was about to enter her home and at least a dozen civilians and four police officers were injured. The clashes ended with an unusual scene: riot police waving white flags in peace, after running out of ammunition.

The Archbishop of Asunción, Edmundo Valenzuela, has called on the parties to cease hostilities. “An appeal to the entire population which is currently shaken by violence. A call to the media to call for peace, ”Valenzuela told Telefuturo channel. The Minister of the Interior, Arnaldo Giuzzio, justified the action of the police to the press and assured that “the police had reacted and tried to prevent the spread of [la protesta], which at this stage is already contained in certain points, ”he said.

Paraguay, one of the countries that best fought the covid-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, has its health system in crisis. Deaths from the virus total 3,278 and there are more than 165,000 people infected, but only 4,000 vaccines have arrived so far, without it being known when more will arrive.

Critics of the conservative government of President Mario Abdo Benítez, son of the private secretary of dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), multiply as drugs run out of a precarious health system, deemed by the World Bank insufficient and unequal . The Paraguayan upper classes are catered for in private centers with prizes in the United States, while the rest of the population goes to public centers where, despite the efforts of officials, the lack of resources and infrastructure makes them very insufficient care.

Since Wednesday, doctors and nurses, patients and their families have demonstrated in the streets of Asunción over the lack of medicine. Workers at the main center in the fight against covid-19 marched past the headquarters, forcing the resignation of its director. Doctors denounced that there were no drugs or chemotherapy, or sedatives for intubates in intensive care and even less vaccines against the coronavirus. Paraguay has received 4,000 doses and is still expecting a million more from Russia and 4.3 million more from the World Health Organization (WHO).