Workers Struggles: The Americas
Latin America
Guatemalan government imposes “state of prevention” in response to protests
Guatemala’s president Alejandro Giammattei announced July 12 that the government was going to impose a “state of prevention” from July 14-28. The announcement followed protests demanding his resignation for his mishandling of the pandemic and lack of vaccinations.
On July 10, about 300 protesters had gathered in the capital Guatemala City’s Constitution Plaza to denounce corruption and demand Giammattei’s resignation. In announcing the state of prevention, the president tried to shift the blame for the pandemic onto the protesters, saying, “My complaint is against those people who are promoting the virus and who become more upset. .. and they are promoting it through a series of illegal demonstrations.”
While coronavirus infections are finally decreasing in the United States and Canada after weeks of unrelenting rise, cases and deaths continue to increase in Latin American countries, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) said on Wednesday.
“Last week, over 1.8 million people in the Americas became sick with COVID-19 and more than 47,000 died as a result,” PAHO Director Carissa Etienne said in a briefing.
In Mexico, cases are still rising, particularly in states that drew tourism in the holiday season, such as Guerrero, Quintana Roo, Nayarit and Baja California del Sur.
Across the Caribbean, most nations are seeing a reprieve in COVID-19 infections, but larger islands like the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Puerto Rico and Cuba continue to see rising numbers of new infections, the organisation said.