News Americas, NEW YORK, NY, Fri. May 28, 2021: According to the UN, the COVID-19 pandemic was the largest health, social and economic shock for the countries of Latin America and the Caribbean. It has already led to the worst economic downturn in the memory of the living generation. At a time when trust in state institutions is already at a historically low level, states are struggling to find ways to take extraordinary measures that will allow them not to step down from the demands of democracy, protect human rights and preserve the achieved peace.
The pandemic has highlighted the fragility of the existing political model, increased inequality, and turned existing hardships into challenges that need urgent attention of the world community. However, the pandemic has shown that poor access to vaccines challenged people’s trust in democracy, and only increased tensions. People of the region have to cope with numerous challenges including financial ones, so some of them even try to solve them with the help of free spins no deposit win real money at online casinos. Will the joint declaration of 6 Latin-American leaders meet the adequate reaction of the world community? Let’s find out.
COVID Spread in Latin America and Caribbean Region
The spread of COVID-19 in cities is of particular concern in Latin America and the Caribbean, as the region is the most urbanized in the world. Cities are home to 80% of their population, and 17% are concentrated in six metropolitan areas with a population of over 10 million.
Latin America’s region includes 5 of the 10 worst-hit states by the number of cases per 100 thousand residents in the past weeks – Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, Costa Rica, and Colombia. Considering the efforts taken within the COVAX initiative, low-income countries received only 0.3 percent of global doses. 10 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, have been excluded from this mechanism at all. Meanwhile, over half of the 1.3 billion doses distributed worldwide have been received by 5 states that make over 50% of world GDP. In this regard, lack of solidarity, inequality, and egoism challenge the democratic values declared by the majority of Western states.
Declaration or Call for Help?
On May 6, 2021, a joint declaration of EuroLat leaders was adopted calling for equitable and fair distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. Following these attempts to stimulate the international community, six LATAM and Caribbean leaders called the international community (i.e, countries that have a surplus of doses or which have already vaccinated their populations at risk) to take steps for fair distribution of vaccines for states in need. This appeal was signed by Argentinian, Mexican, Jamaican, Bolivian, Ecuadorian, and Uruguayan leaders.
Meanwhile, new dangerous virus strains continue to appear, which means that isolated vaccination of developed states is an ineffective strategy. “Everyone is in danger until some people are isolated from vaccines. Recovering from COVID-19 will be possible only when each vulnerable nation will have equal access to them,” the leaders said.
