Americas are the new global epicenter (May 27, 2020)

News Briefs

Regional

• The Americas are the new global pandemic center, according to the World Health Organization -- and modeling predicts deaths surging in Brazil and Latin America through August. There have been more than 2.4 million cases and more than 143,000 deaths in all of the Americas, PAHO head Dr. Carissa Etienne told a press briefing. WHO and PAHO officials are particularly concerned about Brazil and accelerating outbreaks in Peru, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala and Nicaragua. (Guardian, CNN)

Brazil

• Brazil has reached a grim milestone, reporting more Covid-19 deaths in one day than the U.S., reports the Wall Street Journal. Brazil’s Health Ministry reported that 1,039 people had died from the disease caused by the new coronavirus in the 24 hours through yesterday evening.

• Brazil's Federal Police raided the official residence of Rio de Janeiro Gov Wilson Witzel yesterday to carry out searches. The move is part of an investigation into the embezzlement of public resources in the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, though police did not say whether Witzel, a former federal judge, was personally targeted by any of the 12 search and seizure warrants in Rio and Sao Paulo states, reports the Associated Press.

• Brazil is proving particularly deadly for health workers in the coronavirus pandemic: at least 157 Brazilian nurses have died since the country’s first confirmed Covid-19 fatality in mid-March, more than anywhere else in the world, reports the Guardian.

• The Amazon's dry season is on the horizon with added danger this year: "with all eyes on the pandemic crises, the Amazon and its Indigenous groups face existential threats, while criminals act as if they have permission to plunder," warns Bruno Carvalho in a New York Times op-ed. "Scientists agree that we are nearing a tipping point in deforestation that will lead to the Amazon’s “savannization.”"

Cuba

• Cuba's public health system is traditionally considered a powerhouse, and the country is known for its international medical missions that are both a diplomatic tool and source of hard cash for the island's government. But cuts over the last decade have affected quality and access to medical services in Cuba, and could hinder the country's coronavirus pandemic response at home, warns the Centro de Estudios Convivencia. (Miami Herald)

Venezuela

• Venezuela seems to have avoided the brunt of coronavirus for now -- in part due to the country's isolation -- but the number of daily illnesses could soon climb high enough to severely test the country’s already dilapidated health system warn experts. (Associated Press)

• Venezuela’s already collapsed health system was utterly unprepared for the coronavirus, Kathleen Page, a physician from the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine told the Guardian. “This is truly a critical situation that has profound implications for Venezuelans, for Venezuelan healthcare workers and really for the community at large because as we know, migration to and from Venezuelan continues to occur.” The data is part of a new report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch and Johns Hopkins. (See yesterday's briefs.)

• The potential political implications are also frightening, notes Tamara Taraciuk Broner, Human Rights Watch’s deputy regional director also to the Guardian. She said the coronavirus was helping to accelerate Venezuela’s transformation into “something like a police state."

Migration

• Trained medical professionals are in high demand across Latin America -- and members Venezuela's diaspora are stepping up to work in their adopted homes, helped by temporary lifting of difficult credential validation requirements. Americas Quarterly profiles a Venezuelan doctor working in Lima's frontlines.

• Coronavirus has only added to the considerable misery of asylum seekers and migrants in a camp in Matamorros, Mexico -- El Faro.

Mexico

• Mexico’s health department reported 501 deaths from the coronavirus Tuesday, a new one-day high, reports the Associated Press.

• Mexico City is preparing to reopen gradually, but without an adequate, transparent and federal epidemiological model and massive testing recommended by international experts, according to Lucina Melesio in the Post Opinión. (See yesterday's briefs on analyses that indicate thousands of unrecognized Covid-19 deaths in Mexico City, and last Thursday's briefs.)

• Mexican workers living in the U.S. are sending home record remittances, despite economic shutdowns, reports the Conversation.

• Mexico is an exception to coronavirus crime reduction trends in most places -- and data suggests that the increases in violent crimes are being driven by large criminal organizations including transnational groups such as the CJNG, large gangs such as Los Aztecas and La Union, and small but violent local street gangs that are competing for territory. (Latin America Risk Report)

Colombia

• Colombia’s government is using the coronavirus to weaken the historic peace agreement, argues Laura Gil in the Washington Post.

• The Colombian government's decision to appoint the son of an infamous paramilitary leader to head an area that coordinates policies for victims of the country's long civil war unleashed controversy. Though Jorge Rodrigo Tovar Vélez is not himself accused of crimes, the decision has exposed deep fault lines in Colombia that make reconciliation chimeric, argues Felipe Restrepo Pombo in the Post Opinión. (See last Thursday's briefs.)

• Medellín wants to use the pandemic to strengthen environmental policies in recovery, reports Reuters.

Haiti

• A scheduled deportation flight from the U.S. to Haiti was carried out yesterday, but a former paramilitary leader accused of murder and torture was not among the passengers, reports the Associated Press. Emmanuel Constant was excluded as a result of discussions between Haitian and U.S. officials, according to Haiti's government.

• Haitian football hero Yves Jean-Bart is the focus of a sex abuse probe by FIFA. (Miami Herald)

Innovation

• The hospital bed that turns into a coffin is an innovation nobody wanted, but whose time may have come, reports the Guardian. With Covid-19 cases surging across the region, a team of Colombian designers came up with the idea as a pragmatic solution for anticipated shortages of hospital beds and funerary caskets.

• Now is the time for a renewable energy boom in the region, argue Rodrigo García Palma, Ricardo Raineri and Anders Beal in Americas Quarterly.

History

• Cold War lessons for the world today -- Washington Post talks with Vincent Bevins.

Latin America Daily Briefing