In the News: the American continent still hit hard by the Covid-19

Text by: Marie Normand Follow

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While Brazil has passed the 50,000 mark, the President of Honduras calls for unity in front of the Covid-19 from his hospital bed. Juan Orlando Hernandez himself has been affected by the disease and treated for several days, recalls La Prensa , at the military hospital in Tegucigalpa. The capital of Honduras has now overtaken San Pedro Sula in number of cases. Over 1,300 people tested positive in four days. The increase prompted authorities to backtrack, notes El Heraldo . The start of the reopening of the economy, initially scheduled for this week, has been suspended. “  We will only win this war if we are united. (…) Now is not the time for politics "Declared the Honduran president, whose legitimacy is disputed by part of the population.

In Canada, Quebec is officially entering the last phase of its deconfinement . Indoor gatherings of up to 50 people are now authorized, which means the reopening of cinemas, places of worship, swimming pools and even gymnasiums. However, several outbreaks of Covid-19 have been detected on farms in the province. These are, according to the newspaper Le Devoir , "  about fifty temporary agricultural workers who were infected in several regions since the beginning of the pandemic  ." These workers who test positive are often foreign. Many Mexicans and Guatemalans come to work on Quebec farms during the season. On average, "  nearly 10,000 Mexicans each year,  " the newspaper notes.

The " Lady Di tea house " threatened?

Controls were tightened during a pandemic: "most agricultural producers are short of labor at the moment," says Le Devoir , because a third of these workers were unable to obtain work permits this year. . Those who arrived in Canada followed a very strict protocol, says the Express newspaper . Nine workers from Guatemala were, for example, placed in quarantine in a house specially fitted out for them in Saint Cyrille before joining the farm which employs them. Their mission will be to plant 25,000 hemp plant cuttings over the next six months.

Meanwhile, in Argentina, confinement threatens the famous houses that serve tea and pastries in Gaiman, in the Chubut Valley. These establishments date from the colonization of Patagonia by the Welsh. They were popularized by a visit by Lady Di to one of them in 1995. The princess's tea house welcomes 5,000 tourists each year in high season, explains the daily Clarin . But for three months, due to confinement, no more income. “  We have 20 employees. There is no way to continue,  “says the manager of the famous. He believes that the recovery will take too long and plans to close permanently, like other establishments in the area.

United States: a NASCAR pilot victim of a racist act

The automobile championship is in shock: Darrell "Bubba" Wallace Jr , Nascar's only black driver, found a hanged rope hanging in his garage on the Talladega, Alabama circuit. The NASCAR championship has announced that it will open an investigation for "  acts of hate  ". This driver, USA Today recalls , "  played an essential role in the recent engagement of the championship in the fight against racism and injustice  ". In particular, he had succeeded two weeks ago in "banning the Confederate flag in all demonstrations", the former flag of the Southerners, who defended slavery during the American Civil War.

These flags remain popular in the South today and are "  still on sale right across the street  ," notes the Chicago Sun Times . The ban sparked a few protests this weekend, rows of pickups proudly displaying this flag near the Talladega circuit. Sunday, it was an airplane which dragged behind it a huge flag over the circuit, with the slogan "C oupez les vivres à Nascar  ".

The statue of an unbolted president in New York

It has been enthroned since 1940 in front of the Natural History Museum, at the western entrance to Central Park, explains the New York Times . This bronze statue represents the former American president Théodore Roosevelt on his horse and flanked by two characters, who walk with them: an American Indian and an African. It is because of this "hierarchical composition" that the statue will be removed, explains the director of the museum.

The bronze has been controversial for several years, but the museum's decision follows the George Floyd affair. Important decision, underlines the New York Times , because these last weeks, "  the calls for the withdrawal [of statues] were launched by demonstrators  " who considered them offensive. There, the decision is "  made by a museum which, like others, had previously defended - and preserved - such portraits as vestiges of their time which, although reprehensible, could perhaps be used for purposes of education  ”.

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