Page 27 - bon-dia-aruba-20200331

A27
WORLD NEWS Tuesday 31 March 2020
Coronavirus hits rich and poor unequally in Latin America

By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN, tire world. We're talking
EVENS SANON and about class disparities that
FRANKLIN BRICEÑO are unlike anywhere else
Associated Press on the planet," said Geoff
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) Ramsey, a researcher at
— From Mexico City to the Washington Office on
Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and Latin America.
Santiago, Chile, the coro- Some Latin American gov-
navirus is taking root in the ernments were striving to
world’s most unequal re- help workers whose infor-
gion, where many of Latin mal jobs provide them no
America's first cases arrived access to the social safety
with members of the elite net, including unemploy-
returning from vacations ment payments or sever-
or work trips to Europe and ance packages.
the United States. Peru has announced a
Many of the wealthy are payment of $108 for the
already recovering, but 2.7 million homes classified
experts warn that the vi- as poverty stricken. But the
rus could kill scores of the hillside shanty where de la
poorest people, who must Cruz and his unemployed
work every day to feed neighbors are waiting out
their families, live in unsani- the quarantine aren’t poor
tary conditions and lack Homeless gather for a free cup of coffee and bread, distributed by Eli Ferreira, wearing hat, who enough to qualify.
started serving free breakfast to the hungry daily since the outbreak of the new coronavirus, in
proper medical care. Some downtown Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, March 30, 2020. Ferreira, who used to serve food twice "My son hasn't worked
countries are making pay- a week before the outbreak, said he knows he is breaking the rules of social distancing but that for a week, there's barely
ments to informal workers "what counts now is the human side." (AP Photo/Leo Correa) enough to buy a bit of
— maids, street sellers and Assiociated Press food,'' Zoila said.
others who have been told on the street, quarantine edly in quarantine and dis- ly different depending on In Argentina, the center-
to stay home to reduce like Dauphin's would mean covers they are defying the class. left government approved
the spread of the virus, but near-starvation. order. Nadia Muñoz watched her a $151 payment in April
the effort is patchwork and ‘’People are not going stay "You hear honking and 8-year-old son, Luka, fol- for informal workers, who
doesn't apply to everyone home. How are they going street noises, which tells me low online lessons from his make up 35% of the na-
who needs help. to eat?” Bouzi said. “Haiti they’re fooling us and disre- private Catholic school on tion’s economy. Argentina
“I stay home, I will lose all isn’t structured for that.’’ specting the quarantine,” a recent afternoon. The plans to make more pay-
my goods. I have no way The Haitian government Mañalich said. makeup artist and her fam- ments soon.
to save them,” said Marie- has cut banking and gov- Mexican authorities say at ily live in an upper-middle- Brazil’s right-wing govern-
Ange Bouzi, who sells to- ernment office hours, least 17 of the country’s class neighborhood, where ment has no such plans.
matoes and onions on the closed schools and broad- wealthiest people returned Lima’s 15-day quarantine On Twitter last week, left-
street of Haiti's capital. “I cast radio messages asking after being infected during hasn’t been too disruptive. leaning politicians called
am not going to spend people to stay home. a ski trip to Vail, Colorado. “We have a supermarket for maids to receive their
money fighting corona. But thousands in Port-au- The first person to die in Rio nearby, light, water, inter- salaries while self-isolating,
God is going to protect Prince still crowded this state was Cleonice Gon- net, a phone and cable adding the hashtag #Paid-
me.” week into street markets, çalves, a 63-year-old who TV,” Muñoz said as she re- QuarantineNow.
Haiti, the Western Hemi- buses and repurposed worked as a maid for a corded a makeup lesson to The lack of help worries
sphere’s poorest country, pickup trucks known as woman in Leblon, one of post on Instagram. Patricia Martins, who lives
reported its first two cases tap-taps. the wealthiest neighbor- In a shack on a nearby hill, in Brazil’s largest favela,
of the virus on March 20. In Chile, which has seen hoods in Brazil. The wom- Alejandro de la Cruz, 86, his or slum, Rocinha in Rio
One was imported by one cases grow to more than an of the household was wife María Zoila, and his son de Janeiro, which houses
of its most successful artists, 2500 since March 3, many infected during a trip to Ramiro, who sold clothes about 70,000 people in
an R&B singer who had just coronavirus diagnoses Italy but Gonçalves’ family on the street until the quar- brick homes packed tightly
returned from France, ac- have been in upper-mid- members said she wasn’t antine started this month, together on steep slopes
cording to the director of dle-class neighborhoods, in informed her boss was in were cooking with char- overlooking the Atlantic
health in Port-au-Prince. people just back from Eu- isolation awaiting test re- coal. They have no running Ocean. Clean water is spo-
Singer Roody Roodboy, rope, particularly Italy. sults, according to Camila water, electricity, internet radic, sewage often runs in
who's real name is Roody Health Minister Jaime Ma- Ramos de Miranda, health or phone service. the streets and winding al-
Pétuel Dauphin, quaran- ñalich has complained that secretary for the town of They live among security leys and soaring staircases
tined himself when he got wealthy residents of the Las Miguel Pereira. Gonçalves, guards, cooks, drivers, tai- make it difficult for medical
back to avoid infecting Condes and Vitacura sec- who had hypertension and lors, shoemakers, car me- professionals to retrieve a
others and sent his entou- tions of Santiago, the capi- diabetes, fell ill and died on chanics and construction sick person in an emergen-
rage to be tested, man- tal, are routinely violating March 17 in Miguel Pereira workers who are unem- cy.
ager Narcisse Fievre said. required quarantines after two hours north of the capi- ployed during the lock- “The person who’s a clean-
He said the singer had re- they tested positive or en- tal. down. er, the person who counts
ceived death threats from countered someone who “I know we need to work, While there are more poor on that money to survive,
people who accuse him did. need our daily bread, but people in other regions of to sustain their family —
of bringing the disease to Las Condes Mayor Joaquín nothing is more important the world, Latin America they’re going to bring in
Haiti, although there is no Lavín says more than half than the value of a life,” remains the region in which money from where?” she
evidence Dauphin had in- the cases in the city are in Miguel Pereira Mayor An- the greatest proportion of said of anti-virus measures.
fected anyone else. Las Condes and Vitacura. dré Português said in a vid- wealth is held by a small “If everything stops, it will
For hundreds of thousands The health minister says eo posted on Facebook. number of citizens. end people’s lives! There
of Haitians who earn a few he has personally called In Lima, Peru, the fallout “Latin America is the most will be nothing people can
dollars a day selling goods wealthy residents suppos- from the pandemic is stark- unequal region in the en- do to survive!”q