COVID-19 has crossed virtually every border of the world and has broken records. As cases multiply, it has forced millions of people to stay at home. Europe, at the epicenter of the pandemic, is a clear example of this; almost all states have ordered containment measures, and although some are gradually moving away, the order of stay at home remains general.

It has also gone completely through the economic sphere, forcing the Government to take action not taken for at least 80 years: to promote teleworking, to close non-essential sectors and to limit the activity of people on the street to the necessary activities. Some have been able to limit their professional activity to this new modality, but most workers have been forced to discontinue their work, often without compensation. Some countries in Central and South America are examples of this.

El Salvador

On 12 March, El Salvador declared a state of alarm, aware of the poor state of the country's health system, claiming that taking action was the best thing. The speech of the president, Nayib Bukele, gathered the praise of the international community, which called for the solidarity of all citizens.

Since then, the country has remained confined, without permission to go out into the street, and the cases have not suffered major rebounds; they have not reached the 600 infections, and have left thirteen deaths, most in the vicinity of the capital.

“This damn COVID-19 may not lead so many people in Europe, but that’s what hunger will do,” says Gerson Claros, head of the research department at UNIVO El Salvador’s Oriental University. In fact, 42 per cent of the population lacks a formal profession, while among women the figure is even higher: 47%, most of them street residents, are engaged in street food sales. The inability to go out into the streets for almost two months has put upside down the incomes of people in this “informal” economy; many of them live from what others have given them.

The government has given financial aid to citizens who have no other income to cope with the economic crisis. These are bonds of $300 per family, which have pledged aid to over two and a half million families. The aid has also started to be granted, but citizens have denounced the irregularities that have occurred; some families have not received aid, while on other occasions more than one family member has received the bonus.

However, such aid has not yet reached the majority of the population in general. And people don't have savings, they live with what they've earned every day. This breakdown has been exploited by the criminal groups in El Salvador, the well-known maras, who are playing the role of government in the territories under their control.

The crisis has been taken as an excuse to increase their control, and just as in the areas controlled by Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) they have physically punished those who do not comply with the confinement, those in Barrio 18 have distributed food to the poorest families in their controlled territories.

Empowerment strategies are used: “One hit a stick, another hit a meal,” Claros explains. But there are voices saying that these strategies are of interest not only to criminal groups, but also to other political actors, and that there are many others who say that there are other actors who want the maras to control those people.

“Behind this is a whole communicative and symbolic strategy. This is not just a matter of criminal groups, behind that are political parties. Who donated food to the tides? Who has financed them? The tides will not pay, it will not be the Robin Hooda who steal the rich and feed the people,” explains Claros.

The way to resolve conflicts in El Salvador is, according to Claros, a form of violence. In his view, this violence is present in the DNA of the country, where he resides. However, violence does not come only from criminal organizations. It says that the police, taking advantage of their right to use force, imposes this on them.

Since the outbreak of the crisis in El Salvador, more than 400 cases of police abuse have been reported, more than 200 complaints of male violence and three women have been murdered by their partners or ex-partners. But the government has denied everything, it has declared that such systematic violence does not exist.

In El Salvador, a violent city in itself, the health crisis has given impunity to police violence. Numerous citizens and associations have denounced the violence and repression of the military and State security forces, which have spread various videos on social networks where the police are ridiculous. This has been expressed by the UN, which has warned of cases of police abuse in several countries of the world, including El Salvador.

A video is circulating on social networks where it is about elements of @PNCSV and @FUERZARMADASV hitting an elderly person. According to the testimony of the elderly aged 80 years old, he was arrested for failing to comply with home quarantine. It happened in Santa Ana. pic.twitter.com/rNWmpMpWp4

— El Liberal newspaper (@ElLiberal SV) March 25, 2020

El Salvador has incurred a debt of $2 billion with the IMF, on condition that taxes are increased over the next five years. Taxes and basic food prices will be increased in El Salvador in exchange for the loan requested to distribute $300 bonds. However, these bonds have not reached the majority of the population. The future is gloomy in Claros: “When we start to return to normal here there will be a lot of social upheaval, because people will be hungry.”

Bolivia

Data from Bolivia is even more worrying. 70% of the population lives in the “informal” economy, i.e. street food sales or “mototaxis” offered by private urban transport. Prior to the implementation of the confinement, the Government of Bolivia authorized only morning working hours. However, once the confinement was established, on 22 March, they were prohibited from going to work. They also limit the mobility of “mototaxis”: they can only work once a week depending on the last number of their enrolment.

The confinement established has a State vision and does not respect the situation of each territory. With nearly 1,700 infections and 82 deaths, it makes no distinction between cities with many infections and uncontaminated rural areas. As the Valencian psychologist Carla Mateo, in Trinidad, Bolivia, told ARGIA, on 22 March, confined the entire territory, for example, in the city where she was, although not contaminated.

Nor has it taken into account the economic reality of the country, which has supported only 30 per cent of the population, but is about middle-class people living in the centre of the cities and able to telework. Thus, protests against confinement took place in the major cities of the country until the Government approved subsidies of between $60 and $70 for those over 60 years of age, pregnant women, people with functional diversity and primary school students.

However, as Matthew explained, some of the concentrates went to protest against the payment of anti-government forces, with the aim of boycotting the government. In their words, they were paid "total misery" for them to attend the demonstrations, knowing that "real distress is going on", he added.

COVID-19 has only increased the crisis that the country already had before the crisis. These are times of political instability, in which Matthew says it is very difficult to make decisions. However, referring to a number of demonstrations last year, he pointed out that the role of the police and the military was praised in Bolivia and that repression had not been necessary. However, he says that there is repression, even if it is implicit, and that at the beginning of the crisis the agents threw gas into those who were on the street. In this regard, he recalled that there are several people who have denounced police abuses and male violence in the country.

In the case of this country, Carla Mateo says that government aid has also been an implicit struggle between the powers. In fact, these subsidies are previously managed by the head of each district. And Matthew, as the locals have been heard, helps the neighbors who share their political ideology. Being former President Evo Morales or self-proclaimed president Jeanine Áñez Chávez, so the situation in the country is very different.

The exiled president, Evo Morales, has also denounced that aid is being distributed according to political interests. All the parties supporting Jeanine Áñez Chávez have said that they have used their armed forces to distribute subsidies and conduct political campaigns, as he said.

Citizens have created social networks to reach places where the government does not arrive, and just as food is distributed in the neighborhoods themselves, health-care material is also being sent out.

In Bolivia, there is another factor, that of indigenous people. In the case of the indigenous people, Mateo says that they have made the decision to isolate themselves because they do not have access to the health system of the cities and because there are no health centers in their communities. However, the Government is about to carry out the tests, as it does not know if it has Covida or any other disease, so the indigenous people do not enter the official accounts.

Bolivia has also applied for loans from the IMF, the Latin American Development Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank, among other countries. In total, it has received $1 billion, which is added to the $11,267 million debt that lies ahead, which is 27.1 per cent of GDP. The analysts forecast an economic recession of 3.4% and a hardship for the Bolivians that points to a decline in the country’s economy.

Equatorial Guinea

The situation in this African country is different from that of the previous two. Official data indicate that there are 439 infections and four deaths. ARGIA has spoken to a Basque student who does not want to give her name and who will call by the name of Maite. Maite says that these data are easily rejected: "Every night the government sends a statement informing of the contagion, but we quickly refute what the statement says. There's no reliable data, I would say, across Africa."

In any case, Maite has stated that there is a feeling of "lack of sensitivity" towards the partner. "There's a lot of fake news in Spain, and a lot of people believe, here's a thousand times more," he says. According to Lee Mwiti, a journalist from Africa Check, there is a theory that has particularly affected Africa: the coronavirus does not affect black people so much. He says that that theory is not true and that it has greatly harmed the Africans, because people didn't believe it and that has made calm expand.

To this must be added the beliefs of the country. "People don't have the habit of going to the hospital, believing in the witchcraft and turning to the healers. They also think that the virus is something that whites have invented to kill black people or one of God's seven plagues," says Maite.

But the situation in the country does not facilitate confinement either: "Each family has ten children and those children cannot be confined to their house without air conditioning at 50 degrees," he explained. Despite the fact that minimum measures have been taken – in the taxi, in its usual means of transport, only one person can go and the supermarkets are closed in the afternoon – he said that it is not possible to impose confinement in Equatorial Guinea. "The truth is that all white people are in their homes, but the others are still in their day-to-day lives," he added.