The nation of Paraguay is in upheaval, characterized by seven straight days of mass protests in the capital of Asunción and other major cities over President Mario Abdo Benítez’s incompetent response to the coronavirus pandemic and his refusal to deal with decades of entrenched corruption. Citizens are demanding that Abdo resign or be impeached, causing him to reshuffle his cabinet this week with a vague promise to respond to citizens’ demands. But the protests continue. The fact that Paraguay borders Brazil, whose worsening pandemic threatens all its neighbors, is also a cause for alarm.
The number of COVID cases is spiraling out of control in this nation of seven million people, having reached Brazilian levels of daily cases—above 2,000—on March 9. The total number of cases in the country is 174,000, but to date, only one shipment of 4,000 doses of the Sputnik V vaccine has been received, part of 1 million doses contracted with the Russian Direct Investment Fund (RDIF). The rest has yet to arrive. Chile also donated 20,000 doses of the CoronaVac vaccine. On several occasions, Abdo announced that the vaccine was “about to arrive,” but it never materialized. Hence, aside from healthcare workers, vaccination for others hasn’t begun. The government is still waiting to get 36,000 doses of a total of 304,800 doses supposed to come through the COVAX mechanism. On March 10, Abdo also announced that he had just completed a contract for 2 million doses of Astra-Zeneca vaccine, scheduled to arrive in 15 days.
