Most Central American governments reacted quickly to the pandemic, implementing strict quarantine and lockdown measures. But high rates of inequality, poverty and an informal workforce have led to civil unrest in countries where more than 30 percent of the population lives on $5.50 a day or less. In some cases, desperate citizens have been met with repression and arbitrary detentions as police and military, not doctors or nurses take to the front line in the war against COVID-19.
In Central America citizens are often forced to decide between staying home and feeding their families.
"After some days, the need to bring home some food became stronger," said Tiziano Breda, Central America analyst for NGO the International Crisis Group.
Throughout the region, citizens living in poverty have taken to the streets to protest government measures. Hungry street vendors protested in Guatemala. Panama reported recent arrests for looting. In El Salvador, discontent reached a head in late March when Salvadorans showed up in droves at the government office in charge of administering a $300 government subsidy.
"The government is insisting on using confinement as a punishment to whoever violates executive orders, which are unsustainable," said Celia Medrano, chief programme officer of San Salvador-based human rights organization Cristosal. "They have to consider that there is a situation of informal employment for subsistence for many people who are not in conditions to maintain quarantine in their own home."
In Honduras street vendors, laid-off workers and trash collectors have blocked roads in protest of a strict curfew that has worsened conditions for the nearly 50 percent of the population that lives in poverty.
"Most people in this country live day by day. You sell some socks and you buy some eggs," said Bertha Oliva, coordinator of the Honduran human rights group the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (or COFADEH, its acronym in Spanish). "They are hungry and they have to go out." In Honduras, the situation has created a "pressure cooker" for people who don't have enough to feed their children, according to Oliva. "It's not the same to have everything in your house or to have kids at home dying of hunger," she said. "So what does [the government] do? They repress the people who should not be in the street."
"The only thing we are asking for is food," one protester told Honduran media outlet La Tribuna. "We have taken this curfew seriously and we haven't left."
Protesters asking for food have been met by tear gas, according to a report by COFADEH. In at least one case, protesters have reported that police have threatened to shoot them with live bullets, the report says. This fits in with a pattern of excessive use of force against protesters by Honduran security forces. The Honduran government promised to distribute food to 800 million families. But recipients of the aid told Honduran media outlet Contra Corriente that the rice, flour and beans in the package is only enough to feed a family for two days.
In El Salvador, the Bukele government has suspended utilities payments, offered a $300 subsidy to some citizens and received a $389m International Monetary Fund loan for emergency assistance. In Panama, workers who have lost their jobs can receive $40 every 15 days to cover their basic costs. Guatemala has set up an emergency fund to provide struggling families with about $130.
These programmes are only short-term solutions, said Breda of the International Crisis Group, and they risk being manipulated for political purposes.
"The risk of these packages is that the help is not being equally distributed," he said. Breda also warns that repressive measures to arbitrarily detain citizens and control their movements could become normalised in the long term, particularly if these abuses happen without resistance from citizens or civil society, he said.
In Central America citizens are often forced to decide between staying home and feeding their families.
"After some days, the need to bring home some food became stronger," said Tiziano Breda, Central America analyst for NGO the International Crisis Group.
Throughout the region, citizens living in poverty have taken to the streets to protest government measures. Hungry street vendors protested in Guatemala. Panama reported recent arrests for looting. In El Salvador, discontent reached a head in late March when Salvadorans showed up in droves at the government office in charge of administering a $300 government subsidy.
"The government is insisting on using confinement as a punishment to whoever violates executive orders, which are unsustainable," said Celia Medrano, chief programme officer of San Salvador-based human rights organization Cristosal. "They have to consider that there is a situation of informal employment for subsistence for many people who are not in conditions to maintain quarantine in their own home."
In Honduras street vendors, laid-off workers and trash collectors have blocked roads in protest of a strict curfew that has worsened conditions for the nearly 50 percent of the population that lives in poverty.
"Most people in this country live day by day. You sell some socks and you buy some eggs," said Bertha Oliva, coordinator of the Honduran human rights group the Committee of Relatives of the Disappeared in Honduras (or COFADEH, its acronym in Spanish). "They are hungry and they have to go out." In Honduras, the situation has created a "pressure cooker" for people who don't have enough to feed their children, according to Oliva. "It's not the same to have everything in your house or to have kids at home dying of hunger," she said. "So what does [the government] do? They repress the people who should not be in the street."
"The only thing we are asking for is food," one protester told Honduran media outlet La Tribuna. "We have taken this curfew seriously and we haven't left."
Protesters asking for food have been met by tear gas, according to a report by COFADEH. In at least one case, protesters have reported that police have threatened to shoot them with live bullets, the report says. This fits in with a pattern of excessive use of force against protesters by Honduran security forces. The Honduran government promised to distribute food to 800 million families. But recipients of the aid told Honduran media outlet Contra Corriente that the rice, flour and beans in the package is only enough to feed a family for two days.
In El Salvador, the Bukele government has suspended utilities payments, offered a $300 subsidy to some citizens and received a $389m International Monetary Fund loan for emergency assistance. In Panama, workers who have lost their jobs can receive $40 every 15 days to cover their basic costs. Guatemala has set up an emergency fund to provide struggling families with about $130.
These programmes are only short-term solutions, said Breda of the International Crisis Group, and they risk being manipulated for political purposes.
"The risk of these packages is that the help is not being equally distributed," he said. Breda also warns that repressive measures to arbitrarily detain citizens and control their movements could become normalised in the long term, particularly if these abuses happen without resistance from citizens or civil society, he said.
"Where there's no check, the government will implement these kinds of initiatives even when the crisis has passed," Breda said.
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