Ecuador: Lenin Moreno Hides the Number of Covid -19 Deaths

By Ángel Guerra Cabrera on April 5, 2020

We are hearing frightening news from Covid-19 out of Ecuador, mainly from Guayaquil, Guayas province, on the Pacific, the country’s second city and an important commercial and financial center with 2.7 million inhabitants. The BBC states that on April 1, Guayas had reported more victims than entire Latin American nations; 60 dead and 1,937 infected (1,301 in Guayaquil). Images of exposed or burned corpses are profusely circulating in the streets due to the collapse of the health and funeral system. Others are piled up in bags at police stations.

Argentine newspaper Página 12 reports sources in the Guayas Scientific Police reveal a scandalous concealment of deaths by Covid-19 perpetrated by the government of Lenin Moreno. In this city, they say, there are at least 70 deaths per day from the virus. However, there seems to be a catch. The protocol that was put in place does not require verification of the reasons for death, so the death is counted as inconclusive. Cremation is mandatory and immediate family members are allowed to see the body for only five minutes and the families have no recourse to appeal.

The Buenos Aires newspaper reports that Moreno’s government paid some 350 million dollars to the IMF last week on its foreign debt. It concludes that like other neoliberal governments it has cut the health budget by 30 percent.

The Coordinating Body of Indigenous Organizations of the Amazon Basin, which groups the nine Amazon countries, called on their governments to adopt protective measures to address the spread of Covid-19. Meanwhile, the Wayuu people, the most numerous in Colombia, who live in La Guajira department, asked President Iván Duque for guarantees for the obligatory quarantine. They have no water or food to in their homes. They are at risk of contagion and of dying of hunger, said the National Indigenous Organization of Colombia.

Source: La Jornada, translation Resumen Latinoamericano, North America bureau