Latin America and the Coronavirus 

Text by: Stefanie Schüler Follow

In Latin America, the coronavirus affects a continent already weakened by serious economic difficulties and by a new increase in inequalities which are among the highest in the world. The epidemic also exacerbates ubiquitous political tensions after contested elections and the outbreak of massive social movements in several Latin American countries. Certain political powers and forces do not resist the temptation to take advantage of the unprecedented situation imposed by the pandemic. The various responses to the health crisis, often tinged with the prevailing ideologies of the moment, reinforce the distrust of the population and therefore risk weakening the effectiveness of the fight against the virus.

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Bolivia: coronavirus plays the extensions and hardening of a challenged provisional government

Since last fall, Bolivia has been in turmoil. The last much-maligned presidential election of October 20, 2019 was followed by violent riots and the forced departure into exile of Evo Morales, the outgoing socialist head of state who had tried unsuccessfully to stay in the presidency after 13 years. in power. As the Constitution requires, the institutional vacuum is filled by a provisional government. This right-wing team, led by interim president Jeanine Añez, has ruled Bolivia with an iron fist for six months and is far from unanimous in a country where ideological polarization is in full swing. The political crisis should have ended in new presidential and legislative elections, scheduled for May 3, 2020. But the coronavirus decided otherwise.

The first two Covid-19 patients were screened in Bolivia on March 10 . On March 21 , the Supreme Electoral Court decided to postpone the sine die polls due to the epidemic. The majority of the eight presidential candidates had called for the postponement because they could not campaign. On the other hand, the two favorites of the polls were opposed to it: Luis Arce, candidate of the Movement towards Socialism (MAS, the party of Evo Morales), and the ex-president Carlos Mesa who had been the main opponent of Evo Morales during the poll last October.

Four days after the announcement of the electoral institution, the acting president decreed a state of health emergency. Jeanine Añez is herself a presidential candidate but so far only finds herself in third place in voting intentions. The document signed by the Head of State stipulates a very strict confinement of the population (only one person per family has the right to go out each day), the closing of the borders and the deployment of the army and the police. But that's not all: in order to stop the Covid-19 epidemic, people who “  misinform or create uncertainty among the population  ” will now be “  liable to criminal prosecution for crimes against public health.  ", With sentences of one to ten years in prison.

Since the entry into force of the state of health emergency in Bolivia on March 26, the interim right-wing government has put 67 people under investigation. At the end of April, 37 of them were already sentenced, warns Amnesty International. All criticized the management of the health crisis by the provisional authorities. "  Under the pretext of fighting Covid-19 , Jeanine Añez's decree presents a serious setback for freedom of expression in Bolivia,  " criticizes the Human Rights Watch organization. On April 12, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights even asked the interim government to withdraw the text.

In Bolivia, anger is raging. Voters and supporters of ex-president Evo Morales are organizing deafening pot concerts to demand that elections be held as soon as possible. They suspect the right-wing government of wanting to postpone the vote until next year and cracking down on opponents in the meantime. At the end of April , the Supreme Electoral Court proposed that the elections be held between June 28 and September 27. The law for the convocation of the polls is adopted by the two chambers of the Parliament where the MAS, the party of Evo Morales, holds the majority. The text stipulates that the elections must be held within 90 days from May 3, 2020. To come into force, it must be promulgated by the acting president.

►Also read: Bolivia: May 3 elections postponed due to coronavirus

But Jeanine Añez does not disarm. Like his Minister of Health, who regularly alerts threats posed by the coronavirus to the Bolivian population, the provisional head of state highlights the fight against the epidemic. “  To defend the life and health of Bolivians, I reject the elections that the MAS has called. Polls must be held when they do not pose a health risk.  ""  Health comes first,  " she wrote on Twitter. Many Bolivians, however, see it as a pure electoral calculation: the interim president intends to use the postponement of the election to go up in the polls. This is also esteem, since his exile in Argentina, the ex-president Evo Morales who accuses Jeanine Añez of "  instrumentalizing the pandemic  ". Currently, there are 2437 confirmed cases of Covid-19 in Bolivia. 114 people died.

Chile: the aspirations of the population put on hold by the Covid-19

Last October, images from Chile went around the world: we see the streets of the capital, Santiago, invaded by an impressive crowd of demonstrators. The announcement of an increase in the price of the metro ticket becomes the spark that unleashes an unprecedented social movement in the country. For months, Chileans protested against glaring economic and social inequalities, despite a merciless repression by the police, for which the Conservative president would be strongly implicated. Overwhelmed by this movement, which takes him by surprise, Sebastian Piñera is finally forced to let go of the ballast. The Head of State accepts the holding of a referendum on a change in the Constitution. The current text dates from 1980. Legacy of the Pinochet dictatorship, it has since determined the economic and social life of the country. The change of the Constitution has become one of the key demands of the Chileans.

► Also read: Chile: monster demonstration in Santiago against inequality

But here again, the arrival of the coronavirus is a game-changer. On March 18 , the government decreed "  the state of constitutional emergency for catastrophe  ". The Chilean authorities opt for minimal containment by regions in order to maintain economic activity, the establishment of a night curfew and the deployment of the army to maintain order. The constitutional referendum scheduled for April 26 has been postponed until October.

► To read also: Coronavirus: in Chile not yet general confinement but a curfew

Distancing measures to combat the epidemic also put an end to street mobilization. For the first time since the start of the social movement, Plaza Italia in downtown Santiago, renamed by the demonstrators "Plaza de la Dignidad" (Place de la Dignité), is empty. The opportunity for President Piñera to go, on April 3, to this high place of claims which was prohibited for five months. All smiles, the head of state is photographed and filmed.

But that's not all: on May 6 , Sebastian Piñera appointed Macarena Santelices, grand-niece of the dictator Augusto Pinochet and member of the right-wing party UDI, to the post of minister in charge of Women's Rights and Equality. These two events, the visit of President Plaza Italia and the appointment of a woman, known to have defended the dictatorship, sparked an outcry from the ranks of the political opposition. They also strengthened the determination of many Chileans to return to the streets to resume the social movement, as soon as the measures to combat the Covid-19 are lifted.

They will have to take their troubles patiently: after a worrying increase in new infections throughout the past week, Chile recorded the weekend of May 10 a record of 1647 new patients detected in 24 hours for a total which now borders 29,000 cases and 312 deaths. Instead of starting a "  gradual return to normal  ", as announced by the president a few days ago, the government is now talking about "the battle of Santiago  ": the Chilean capital concentrates 80% of new infections and the measures to combat the Covid-19 epidemic will be extended.

Venezuela : political showdown in times of pandemic

Since the arrival of the coronavirus pandemic on the Latin American continent, concerns have been particularly high regarding the risks posed by Covid-19 to Venezuela. After years of serious economic, social and political crisis, the country is out of breath: hyperinflation, recurrent cuts in electricity and water, shortages of food, medicine and fuel have put the population at knees. Hospitals lack everything. And the state coffers are empty.

However, Venezuela today has only 402 patients and 10 deaths linked to Covid-19. While the first cases of the virus were detected two months ago, these official figures are surprising: their curve is not exponential, as in other countries affected by the pandemic, but on the contrary follows a linear path. In this country where the regime does not shine through its transparency in public management and which no longer publishes epidemiological bulletins since 2013, virologists and infectiologists doubt the veracity of the official figures. These are communicated most of the time by Nicolas Maduro himself live on television. Mask over the face and accompanied more often by generals than by his Minister of Health, the disputed socialist president stands as chief in the fight against the coronavirus. For scientists, the infection figures demonstrate above all the weak screening capacity in Venezuela and do not reflect the real spread of the epidemic across the country.

The first two patients of Covid-19 are announced in Venezuela on March 13, 2020. Only four days later, President Maduro decreed a strict confinement: closing of schools, curfew in certain districts at the end of the afternoon. noon, compulsory wearing of a mask and gloves for each trip, cutting off the main roads, closing of borders, suspension of air traffic. To enforce these rules, the army and the police crisscross the districts.

►Read also: Coronavirus: Nicolas Maduro declares a state of health emergency in Venezuela

But according to the Venezuelan minister of communication, Jorge Rodriguez, it is another measure which makes the plan against the coronavirus of his government: at the end of March, the Venezuelans are invited to take part in an investigation concerning their state of health via the “patria” platform, a digital database. People with symptoms of the virus would then receive a medical team's home visit and be tested, the government promises.

On April 9, Jorge Rodriguez announced that of the more than 19 million Venezuelans registered, according to the government, on the “patria” platform (the country has a total of 31.6 million inhabitants), almost 18 million would have followed the call . Among them, 124,000 have already received a medical examination, says the minister. According to the socialist regime, this Venezuelan tracing system allows it to identify patients very early, organize their quarantine and thus stem the spread of the epidemic on the national territory.

But this measure also arouses strong criticism. Observers and human rights defenders are concerned about an increase in the control of citizens by the authoritarian regime. The “patria” database indeed contains the personal information of the holders of the “fatherland book”, a biometric document which allows sympathizers and Chavist voters to receive social allowances as well as one food parcel per month at the preferential price. . Anthropologist Paula Vasquez denounces that a “  digital platform, used to identify voters and supporters of the government retrieves medical data. For the government of Nicolas Maduro, the pandemic is an opportunity to cross-check the information contained in this database and to enlarge it,  ”estimates the researcher at the CNRS.

While the Socialist president, although disputed, is in charge, the Venezuelan opposition is struggling to find room for maneuver. The most ardent opponents of the Chavista regime are    integrating the coronavirus into their fight,  ”notes Jean Jacques Kourliandsky. The director of the Latin America Observatory of the Jean-Jaurès Foundation cites the example of Leopoldo Lopez, leader of the conservative party Voluntad Popular and a refugee at the Spanish embassy in Caracas who, in an interview with the newspaper El Pais on April 7 believes that the best way to bring medical aid to the Venezuelan people is to force Nicolas Maduro to step down and form a government of national unity.

►Read also: Coronavirus : in Venezuela, the poorest try to survive confinement

It is also the political line pursued by Juan Guaido. Head of the National Assembly, where the opposition holds the majority, and recognized since January 2019 as interim president of Venezuela by sixty countries, he calls for the establishment of an "emergency government", which would include the Chavista camp but without the participation of Nicolas Maduro or other senior officials of the current regime to deal with the epidemic. In March , he also called on the IMF to refuse a loan of 5 billion dollars requested by Nicolas Maduro, arguing that it "would  finance corruption  ".

Deprived of all control on the ground and confined to social networks, Juan Guaido's room for maneuver in this health crisis nevertheless seems more than slim. And its international support is also starting to crumble. On March 26 , the United States Department of Justice announced that Nicolas Maduro had been charged with drug trafficking  and a $ 15 million reward for his arrest. Four days later, the United States, so far the main international supporter of Juan Guaido, dangled a gradual lifting of American sanctions in exchange for the establishment of a transitional government in which neither Nicolas Maduro nor Juan Guaido.

These American measures had the immediate result of increasing political tensions in Venezuela. However, it is clear that without an agreement between the two enemy camps, no aid will enter the country during these times of pandemic.

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