Old years in Ecuador in 2019. (JUAN CEVALLOS / AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's Note:
Roberto Izurieta is Director of Latin American Projects at George Washington University.
He has worked in political campaigns in several Latin American countries and Spain, and was an advisor to Presidents Alejandro Toledo of Peru, Vicente Fox of Mexico, and Álvaro Colom of Guatemala.
Izurieta is also a contributor to CNN en Español.
The opinions expressed in this column are solely those of the author.
See more opinions at cnne.com/opinion
(CNN Spanish) -
There is a tradition in Ecuador and other countries in the region where, on the last day of the year, families, neighbors and friends gather to proceed to burn a puppet that symbolizes the year that ends, while reading the testament of the year.
In the Ecuadorian case, this tradition dates from the end of the 19th century when some chroniclers make a parallel with the last outbreak of the yellow fever epidemic in Guayaquil and with this, they allude to the idea of burning the virus.
OPINION |
2020: the year we learned to appreciate life
So, with these bad coincidences, but faithful to this tradition of the burning of the old year, I fulfill my duty to write what would be my version of the 2020 will:
“I leave a year that deserves to be burned at midnight because it has brought illness, death, confinement and an economic crisis. It wasn't my fault or China's fault: it was the fault of poor hygiene and health practices.
But not everything I leave is bad. I leave Donald Trump behind, despite the fact that he cannot accept the designs he has dictated this election year: that he has lost the popular vote in the United States by more than 4.5% and the Electoral College with the same difference between the number of voters with which he beat Hillary Clinton four years ago. With that, he couldn't say that Joe Biden narrowly won (I really enjoy those matches). In addition, the same magistrates that he appointed in the Supreme Court dismissed his claims without hearing him in a public hearing, something that is probably what hurts him the most. I give way to the year 2021 with the remains of the noise and noise of Trump, but with a smaller microphone and without the power of the strongest government in the world.
Another thing I leave out is that for me there is no doubt about the incompetence of President Jair Bolsonaro. I apologize to all the Brazilians who were victims of their policies in the face of the crisis and to those who had to endure their actions and omissions, but I make it clear that this was not my fault either.
I leave a year with the worst economic crisis in memory, due to the loss of employment and the increase in poverty. Not everything was my fault, it was not even just the fault of this terrible pandemic, although the situation gave an excuse to many other governments not to be judged for their incompetence and corruption. I leave to 2021 the task of ending those evils, or at least making them less bad.
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It left a year in which less polluted air was breathed, but it left a lot of plastic and masks thrown around the streets and oceans. That task is still pending for improvement in 2021. We don't have much more time left!
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But not everything I leave is bad. The good news is that the new year cannot be worse. I leave you things that did not cease to positively surprise me and that should be the basis of a better testament to be written according to this tradition on December 31, 2021. Citizens around the world have proven their strength to face this pandemic at levels memorable for history: the vast majority of citizens demonstrated enormous solidarity, adaptability and a lot of awareness about what things we can and must stop doing so that this evil ends permanently in 2021.
We leave behind many of those we love and get to know. We have his memories and life examples. We leave patients who are still seeking care and I hope that 2021 will achieve their speedy recovery.
The best inheritance that I leave you is the vaccines (I do not leave one but several and I do not count those that are produced in Cuba, copied in Russia or invented in North Korea). Vaccines have been developed with unthinkable speed and with unprecedented global scientific collaboration. Nobody assumed that this 2020 would achieve scientifically developed and tested vaccines in a few months. Scientific and technological development, the professional commitment of health and science workers, I owe everything to them and I hope that in 2021 we will give them more support.
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In compliance with this great tradition of reading my 2020 will, and asking you to keep a prudent distance to meet again next year, proceed to the well-deserved burning of my puppet at exactly midnight this year that finally ends".
