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The world has a major new country with corona problems
| Reading time: 4 minutes
Infection and death rates in Argentina are increasing dramatically
Argentina has expanded its exit restrictions. But finally the discipline of the population loosened. The country is doing badly economically. Poverty increases.
Until now, the United States and Brazil have been considered the countries most affected by the pandemic. But converted to the population, the situation in Argentina is now more dramatic. Observers warn of a social apocalypse, with worldwide consequences.
meIt is a week of horror for Argentina: when the daily death and infection figures were announced on Wednesday night, they reached dramatically high values with 424 deaths and 12,624 new infections, as in the previous days. Converted into a population, Argentina has long reached the size of other hot spots in the world crown.
So far, the world has been looking primarily at the US and Brazil when it comes to which countries are particularly affected by the pandemic. But in the shadow of the two huge states, one country is becoming one of the countries with the biggest crown problems that goes unnoticed: Argentina. If you extrapolate the corona cases and deaths in the country of 45 million people to the Brazilian (211 million) or American (328 million) population, you will get the daily deaths of 1988 and 3,090, respectively. Values that are well above those of previously known global hotspots. And that’s in a country whose economy was on the brink of collapse even before the crisis.
Because Corona’s dramatic numbers are only one side of a catastrophic development. The other is the collapse of the Argentine economy. New labor market figures were also announced on Wednesday: with an unemployment rate of 13.1 percent, the country fell to the crisis level of 2005. Less than 24 hours earlier, more negative news was known: gross domestic product fell it plummeted 19.1 percent in the second quarter. Argentina, observers fear, faces a social apocalypse.
According to Archbishop Víctor Manuel Fernández de La Plata, the poverty line has already moved: “Until recently, the new poor belonged to the middle class, many of them were skilled workers and small business owners who suddenly slipped through below the poverty line. ” According to estimates from the Universidad Católica UCA at the end of the year, 44.7 percent of the Argentine population considered themselves poor. According to Unicef, the number of children and young people living in poverty could have risen to 8.3 million by then.
Source: WORLD infographic
Added to this is the fear of increased illiteracy due to school closures. About a million children recently had little or no school activity. “We are concerned about this value and the loss we may have in school continuity,” says Luisa Brumana, representative of Unicef in Argentina.
The Argentine government of leftist president Alberto Fernández has its back to the wall. He began his term in December 2019 with a promise to end poverty and hunger in the country. Along with former President Cristina Kirchner, who ruled the country from 2007 to 2015 and now pulls the strings in the background as vice president, Fernández wanted to get Argentina out of its vicious cycle of public debt, suspended economy and social conflicts.
The population awaits solutions
At the beginning of the pandemic, he opted for strict exit restrictions. The international media celebrated him as an alternative to Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro. But now there isn’t much left of the accolades. Critics accuse him of being responsible for the collapse of the economy with his restrictive policies: “The Argentine blockade is now pushing millions into poverty,” US economist Steve Hanke tweeted.
Until now, Fernández has always reacted by blaming his predecessor Mauricio Macri, but Argentines await solutions from the incumbent president. Meanwhile, Vice President Kirchner is working on judicial reform, from which she and her family clan in particular could benefit from their own corruption processes. Kirchner rose to become a billionaire and landowner during her political career and, according to her own statements, all was well. The consequence: the conservative side, defeated in the electoral campaign at the end of 2019, is taking a new courage and organizing caravans in protest against the government.
At least the government was able to record a success: after months of negotiations, national bankruptcy was avoided for the time being. “Nine percent of the debt has already been restructured,” said Economy Minister Martín Guzmán with a view to the public external debt of 66 billion dollars. The flight to the parallel currency, the dollar, is back in full swing, and long-awaited loans for small and medium-sized businesses are failing due to bureaucracy. The danger to the rest of the world, namely that Argentina may start another financial crisis, has not yet been avoided.
The development is also viewed with concern in neighboring Uruguay, which has so far handled the pandemic better: President Luis Lacalle Pou left open this week whether he would open the borders with Argentina and Brazil in the summer. It’s not just about the coronavirus. According to the newspaper “La Nación”, around 25,000 Argentines have emigrated to Uruguay since the pandemic began. Very few in Uruguay fear a mass exodus along the Río de la Plata to the north in view of current developments.
