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The Latin American features of the plague

2020-03-30T20:00:25.561Z


The region faces the threat with its own weaknesses that make the pandemic much more corrosive


The expansion of the coronavirus is global. But its impact is not homogeneous. Latin America faces the threat with its own weaknesses that make the pandemic much more corrosive.

The most obvious peculiarity is climatic. Unlike Asia or Europe, Latin Americans are not surprised by this disease in winter but at the end of summer. Among the mysteries of the new virus is its relationship with temperature. It is still not certain that the cold will strengthen him. But, if other similar microorganisms are taken as a reference, it could be thought that in the southern hemisphere the disease will be longer.

Another particular feature is that there is a gigantic informal economy in the region. Depending on the country, it can represent between 30 and 40% of material life. This means that there are millions of people who do not receive a salary. And whose employment conditions are unstable. The recession that follows social distancing and quarantines is much more aggressive for these citizens. Among other things, because the State has a much harder time identifying and reaching them with its help. And they are the ones that need the most help.

Within this universe of “black” workers are the poorest, whose living conditions are almost incompatible with the recommendations of the health system. It is also a characteristic of Latin America. A sad trait. In the great peripheries, families live crowded into housing estates where life is subhuman. They are the Brazilian favelas, the slums of Argentina, the Venezuelan ranches or the young towns of Peru. According to the Inter-American Development Bank, there are around 90 million households in the entire region.

In these large conglomerates, the houses are precarious shacks, sometimes built of sheet metal and cardboard. Ambulances have a hard time entering those labyrinths of hallways where there are no streets. They lack sewers there. And, in many cases, they don't have running water either. Reclining can be an ordeal. It means living with five or six other people in a room of three square meters, with little ventilation and less light. The prescriptions of the doctors there are abstractions. How do you wash your hands frequently? Where do you buy alcohol gel, which, in addition to being in short supply, is becoming more expensive every day?

Last week, a group of priests and nuns who work in villas in Greater Buenos Aires released a statement to draw attention to the enormous challenge that confronting the plague represents in those neighborhoods. Because to the hardships already listed we must add the expansion of the most destructive drugs, whose consumption in crises increases. And diseases typical of that environment, such as asthma or dengue, which this year proliferated much more than usual throughout the region and which is causing more deaths than the coronavirus. It is not necessary to detail the impact of this drama on Venezuelans who are submerged. They were already suffering a terminal crisis in the health system when the new disease was not known to exist. That is why Deputy Jadira Feghali of the Communist Party was sensible, when last week she regretted in the Brazilian Congress that the official communication is referring to the coronavirus as if it were a middle-class pathology.

The State does not enter these gigantic hamlets. In some favelas in Rio de Janeiro, those who have taken upon themselves the task of enforcing quarantine are the drug traffickers. In the Buenos Aires suburbs, the authorities have decided not to enter these neighborhoods. To avoid contamination, they are limited to fencing. Thus the favelas and villas are finished turning into ghettos.

Latin America has another specific limitation to deal with the epidemic and the recession. The public sector in all countries is huge but weak. Brazil has a fiscal deficit of 6 GDP points and, according to Paulo Guedes, the finance minister, the funds destined to revive the economy will increase it by 4.8 more points. Argentina will go from an imbalance of 1% to another of at least 4. It is calculated that Mexico will increase its deficit by 5 points of the product. In the midst of the pandemic, the question may be out of time. But no one knows how that imbalance will be financed.

The urgency forces the most vulnerable to attend. Those to whom the contraction of the economic activity originated in the isolation measures damages more. They are informal bricklayers, gardeners, housemaids, cardboard workers. They have no ability to save. They live on what they earn on the day. They also cannot store food or cleaning supplies. They are on the verge of hunger. It is the edge from which these days they are falling.

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Source: elparis

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