Santiago, Chile – According to a joint report by Amnesty International and the Center for Economic and Social Rights, inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean is the root cause of the region’s high COVID-19 death rates.
Check out the statistics from the start of the pandemic in 2020 until February this year, report announced Wednesday that more than 1.6 million people in Latin America have died from causes related to COVID-19.
That means Latin America accounts for almost a third (28 per cent) of all COVID-19 deaths – even though only 8.4 per cent of the world’s population lives in the region.
Amnesty researcher Diego Vazquez told Al Jazeera: “The death rate from COVID-19 is high worldwide, but in Latin America it is disproportionate to the population.
The report cites “astonishing inequality” as the core reason behind the death rate, along with low public health spending, meager social security and historically low taxes.
Of the 17 Latin American and Caribbean countries mentioned, Peru has highest death rate per capita, with poverty and pre-existing health conditions cited as the main reasons. In Brazil, racism and lack of access to medical facilities for minority groups and Indigenous Peoples are selected as core actors.
While there is no “one-size-fits-all” solution, the report highlights inequality as a pervasive “human rights crisis” in the region that urgently needs to be addressed to avoid a repeat of the scenario. .
In Chile, one of the most prosperous countries in the region, Amnesty has highlighted the pitfalls of the largely privatized country health care systemonly for those who can afford it.
“In Chile, the richest 20 percent of the country have 10 times the poverty rate, which is terrible,” Vazquez said, noting that Chile has a death rate per capita from COVID- 19 is the sixth highest after Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay and Mexico.
“For the resources that Chile has, the results are not what you would expect,” he said.
Orlando Cortes lives in an impoverished neighborhood in Lo Espejo, a district on the outskirts of the Chilean capital, Santiago. He described the area as a “red zone” rife with unemployment, lack of education and high crime rates related to drug trafficking.
During the pandemic, Cortes turned his home into a soup kitchen to distribute meals to dozens of his struggling neighbors. “We have no right to health here, we are living in a different reality,” he said, referring to the high COVID-19 death rate in the region. Cortes lost his brother to the virus last year, a moment he recalls suddenly and painfully.
“We have not received any help from the government. We have to help each other if one of us gets sick,” he said.
On Monday, Amnesty presented a report to health officials from the administration of Chilean President Gabriel Boric, noting the government’s commitment to human rights.
A left-wing millennium take office in March, Boric’s election promise including overhauling privatization sectors and increasing public spending. Earlier this month, the government confirmed its plan to increase the minimum wage from $424 (peso 350,000) to $496 (p400,000) as part of a $3.7 billion post-pandemic economic recovery plan.
President Boric’s agenda also outlines drastic reforms to Chile’s health sector, establishing a universal health care service and “drastic regulation” of private prices.
However, Bank of America warned that a spiraling inflation rate would be a core obstacle to Boric’s reform ambitions.
Meanwhile, Amnesty’s report calls on Chile to increase spending on public health care from 4.7% of gross domestic product (GDP) to at least 6%. “It was hard,” Vazquez admitted. “These are long-term goals that cannot be achieved overnight.”
