An image of the protests in Asunción (Paraguay) against the Government of Mario Abdo Benítez.Jorge Saenz / AP
A demonstration against the management of the pandemic by the Government of Mario Abdo Benítez was harshly repressed by the police this Friday in Asunción.
The incidents have left one dead and at least 18 injured among civilians and uniformed men, according to authorities.
Earlier, the Minister of Health, Juio Mazzoleni, had resigned, questioned about the handling of the health policy against the pandemic in which corruption and the lack of medicines and vaccines against covid-19 are criticized.
Two hours before the start of the protest, the protesters, a total of about 10,000 attendees, were expelled with tear gas and rubber bullets by the riot police, which led to a pitched battle in the heart of the Paraguayan capital.
A dozen masked men threw stones at the agents in the vicinity of the Congress and they responded.
A woman with her baby was sprayed with tear gas as she was about to enter her home and there are at least a dozen civilians and four policemen injured.
The clashes ended with an unusual scene: the riot police raising white flags in peace, after running out of ammunition.
The Archbishop of Asunción, Edmundo Valenzuela, asked the sides to cease hostilities.
“A call to the entire population that is currently convulsed by violence.
A call for the media to call for peace, ”Valenzuela told the Telefuturo channel.
The Interior Minister, Arnaldo Giuzzio, justified the police action to the press and assured that "the Police reacted and tried to prevent [the protest] from spreading, which at this point is already contained in some points," he said.
Paraguay, one of the countries that best fought the covid-19 pandemic in the first half of 2020, has its health system in crisis.
Deaths from the virus total 3,278 and there are more than 165,000 infected, but only 4,000 vaccines have arrived so far, without it being clear when more will arrive.
Criticisms of the conservative government of President Mario Abdo Benítez, son of the private secretary of the dictator Alfredo Stroessner (1954-1989), grow as drugs run out of a precarious health system, considered by the World Bank insufficient and unequal.
The Paraguayan upper classes are cared for in private centers with prices in the United States, while the rest of the population goes to public centers where, despite the efforts of officials, the lack of resources and infrastructure makes the care very deficient.
Since Wednesday, doctors and nurses, patients and their families protested in the streets of Asunción due to the lack of medicines.
The workers of the main center in the fight against covid-19 marched in front of the headquarters, forcing the resignation of its director.
The doctors denounced that there are no drugs or for chemotherapies, or sedatives for those intubated in intensive care and much less vaccines against the coronavirus.
Paraguay received 4,000 doses and is still waiting for a million more from Russia and another 4.3 million from the World Health Organization (WHO).
