Via The Tyee, my colleague Emi Sasagawa writes: In Guatemala, the Virus Shows Its Power to Kill Trust. Excerpt:
It’s the start of month six of the world living with the threat of coronavirus. While restrictions are easing in Canada, a first wave of COVID-19 cases is resurging just south of the border in the U.S.
Further south, in many less-developed countries, the first wave is just now picking up speed. With fewer resources and restless populations, some of those nations’ governments are seeing their political lives put in danger by the coronavirus.
As citizens are asked to endure lockdowns and economic deprivation as a result of pandemic measures, trust becomes a currency increasingly precious. Eroding it are doubts about the statistics their leaders share, what competence they show in managing the virus and the economy, and where government money flows.
Guatemala is a case in point — one The Tyee is looking in on occasionally as part of a project in partnership with the TulaSalud Foundation, which funds rural public health work in that Central American country. Grassroots opposition to corruption in Guatemala has roiled the country for years, playing a key role in unseating the previous president who was replaced in January by Alejandro Giammattei, a right-wing former physician and director of the prison system. He, too, under the harsh glare of the pandemic, faces severe trust issues.
As July arrives, Guatemala is struggling to deal with a steepening infection curve and a health system leaning towards collapse. The reported numbers have soared from 644 cases and 16 deaths on May 1 to 20,072 cases and 843 deaths on July 2. There is no indication the curve with be flattened any time soon. What took months to unfold across Canada — the outbreaks, the overwhelmed health system in certain regions, the economic and financial repercussions of the pandemic — has been compressed into a matter of weeks.
Still, there were months to prepare. Yet Giammattei’s government is taking fire for not yet managing to provide personal protective equipment for frontline workers.
“At this point, doctors still don’t have the appropriate health equipment,” said Dr. Rubén Gonzalez, former vice-minister of health and one of the leading voices in an alternative COVID-19 response exercise. “Of the total budget assigned for this emergency, only a small fraction, less than five per cent is being used, because the government hasn’t been able to negotiate a price with providers and, as a result, all plans by the government collapse. In the meantime, our health-care workers suffer.”
