The number COVID-19 cases in Latin America and the Caribbean has positioned the region as the global epicenter of the virus. Health professionals and regional experts warn that if nothing is done, the region will see major efforts, including a massive increase in poverty and a rise in authoritarianism, as leaders see an opportunity to escape. Latin America, which accounts for 8% of the world population, has reported nearly 30% of the world’s deaths.
“We are working on how quickly the pandemic is expanding,” said Drs. Carissa Etienne, director of the Pan American Health Organization, at a recent press conference.
Reported deaths in the region have dropped to 230,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data, putting the death toll for the region as a whole higher than that of the United States and Canada combined. If preventive measures are not taken, the death toll could reach 438,000 by October, according to the regional director of the World Health Organization for America.
Brazil is the second most affected country in the world, just behind the United States, spanning 3 million coronavirus cases and more than 105,000 deaths. President Jair Bolsonaro has contracted the virus himself after refusing to wear a mask in public and continuing to hold public meetings in the wake of the crisis. Bolsonaro’s wife and eight government ministers also contracted the virus.
Bolsanaro has fully recovered and used the experience to reduce the virus and say, “What are you afraid of? Look at it.” The lack of response from his government allowed local governments, and even local governments, to carry out their own lockdowns.
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Mexico City has never completely shut down, and Mexico recently took over Britain as the country with the third-highest death toll in the world, with 54,000 dead.
Other Latin American statesmen are also testing positive for COVID-19, including Bolivian President Jeanine Añez and Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez, who was hospitalized for several weeks.
A United Nations report warns that if the region cannot control the spread, countries could see 45 million more people fall below the poverty line. The report says that as gains in inequality and poverty begin to corrode, so will democracy with the potential for civil unrest.
“The pandemic arrived in Latin America at a time when the region was already suffering from a democratic disaster,” said Daniel Zovatto, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Foreign Policy and Latin America Initiative, referring to the wave of protests against government which took over the region last year, in countries including Chile, Venezuela, Honduras, and Haiti.
“We were also in an economic situation that was already on a downward trend. When the pandemic came, it exacerbated and accelerated all these negative problems,” he said.
In some cases, such as that of El Salvador, Zovatto said President Nayib Bukele used the pandemic to consolidate the executive power of Congress and the supreme courts because he did not have a majority. But there are more serious examples, such as Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua – countries that already have authoritarian regimes – that have used coronavirus restrictions to fire at dissent and protests.
“We need to coordinate, and speak as one voice to defend our interests,” said Zovatto, of all Latin American countries, “to let the world know that Latin America needs help too. If we do not find this help “We will find ourselves in a very difficult situation.”
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