Outrage in Paraguay for corruption and increase in COVID-19 cases

Asunción, Paraguay – For almost a year, Paraguay has played a leading role in the fight against the pandemic and, despite its persistent problems, the country has remained fairly calm. No more.

Paraguay’s coronavirus infection rate has skyrocketed, becoming one of the worst in the Americas, and its already unstable health system has been taken to extremes. In recent days, thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets to demand the impeachment of President Mario Abdo Benítez and in some cases there have been bloody clashes with the police.

For many Paraguayans, corruption and elite privileges, which were once just unpleasant facts of life, have become intolerable in the face of the pandemic. There is a shortage of basic drugs accused of corruption by doctors and nurses, elective surgeries have been suspended due to shortages of medical supplies and few vaccines are available.

The crisis spread through the streets with a level of anger that the country’s leaders had not faced in years, with The daily protests that started last Friday with medical workers were quickly joined by other frustrated people. Most have been peaceful, but in some cases security forces have responded to protesters with rubber bullets, tear gas and water cannons.

“There are a lot of deaths and they are all the fault of the thieves of our corrupt authorities,” said Sergio Duarte, who joined a protest outside Congress on Saturday in Asunción, the capital and largest city of the country. Paraguay.

The riots in Paraguay are a testament to the enormous challenges Latin America faces as the virus continues to wreak havoc, as governments struggle to provide adequate health care and purchase enough vaccines.

The virus became sick and killed a disproportionate number of Latin Americans. The region has just over eight percent of the world’s population and about a quarter of confirmed deaths from COVID-19.

Paraguay’s official case and death rates remain well below peaks recorded in much of the world, including the United States, but they are getting worse – the number of new infections per day has doubled in under a month, reaching the highest level ever – even as many other countries are improving.

“We came because we are tired,” said Rosa Bogarín, one of the thousands of protesters in Asunción. “We need free vaccines for everyone, medicine, education and a popular solution to this situation.”

Anger over the pace of vaccine distribution has touched many countries, made worse in some places by the powerful and well-connected skipping the line and gaining quick access to vaccines.

In Paraguay, there was no line for jumping. The country of seven million people until last week had received just 4,000 doses of the Russian vaccine Sputnik V. Over the weekend, Chile donated a shipment of 20,000 doses manufactured by the Chinese company Sinovac.

The pandemic recession has exacerbated poverty, inequality and food insecurity in Latin America, as around the world, compounding frustrations over dealing with the virus. The United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean recently estimated that 209 million people in the region were living in poverty at the end of 2020, an increase of 22 million from the previous year.

The crisis has fueled long-standing frustrations with wealthy and political leaders who do not feel bound by the same rules as everyone else, said Alejandro Catterberg, a political analyst and pollster who runs Poliarquía, a Buenos Aires-based consultancy firm. Areas.

“In Latin America there is a generalized social structure in which the powerful have certain privileges and the political class has a self-imposed status as different from the average citizen,” he said.

In Paraguay, the basis of the current crisis is corruption, poverty and the weakness of the health system. “With the pandemic, the problems were exacerbated,” but they existed long before, said Verónica Serafini Geoghegan, an economist at the Center for Analysis and Dissemination of the Paraguayan Economy, a non-governmental organization.

Abdo sacked his Public Health Minister Julio Mazzoleni and three other members of his cabinet over the weekend, but that did not quell the protests. Mazzoleni has followed in the footsteps of his counterparts in Peru, Brazil, Ecuador and Argentina, all made redundant for handling the pandemic.

Paraguay was applauded, along with neighboring Uruguay, for taking swift and decisive action that kept its coronavirus outbreaks low during the first months of the pandemic. But the contagion started to increase at the end of last year, pushing intensive care units to the limit.

Opposition leaders have encouraged protests against Abdo, a conservative leader who has been in power for two years. On Saturday, the president called on all his ministers to step down and told protesters he understood their frustration.

“I am a person of dialogue, not of confrontation,” Abdo said.

Many protesters say they intend to stay on the streets until the government collapses. Popular slogans include: “Elections Now!” and “Let Marito resign!”, referring to the president’s nickname.

Euclides Acevedo, Paraguay’s foreign minister, said the government was making an effort to deliver the vaccines it had ordered from suppliers, while the public health ministry declared a red health alert.

“Paraguay is determined to get vaccinated anywhere and in any way,” he said in an interview on Tuesday. “Everyone here must be vaccinated, free of charge. This is the policy of the government ”.

But many young protesters say they have waited long enough for a decent government.

“We are not going to stop until Marito resigns,” protester Melisa Riveros said.

Copyright: 2021 The New York Times Company

* Santi Carnieri reported from Asunción, Paraguay. Daniel Politi reported from Buenos Aires. Ernesto Londoño contributed reporting from Rio de Janeiro.