This week, we look at the wave of protests popping up in South America and why it hasn’t reached Brazil. Plus, state governors plan to wrestle control over pandemic response away from the Bolsonaro government.
Fear and loathing in South America
This weekend saw citizens in Argentina, Chile, and Paraguay staging protests against local authorities, each for different reasons.
- Argentina. Demonstrators clashed with police forces in the city of Formosa, on the border with Paraguay. They protested the enforcement of tighter quarantine restrictions following a surge of coronavirus infections. International organizations criticized the police’s disproportionate use of force, which was also condemned by the federal government. Last week, Argentinians in Buenos Aires staged pot-banging protests against a vaccine line-cutting scandal within the government.
- Chile. After police killed a street performer, multiple protests erupted in Santiago and the traditionally Mapuche indigenous town of Panguipulli. Demonstrators in Panguipulli burned public buildings. In Santiago, demonstrators met at Plaza Italia, the epicenter of 2019 protests which nearly brought down the government.
- Paraguay. For the past three days, Paraguayans have taken to the streets to protest the government’s mismanagement of the pandemic and demand the resignation of President Mario Abdo BenÃtez. The country’s health...