“My fear isn’t becoming infected. My fear is my children going hungry,” said Liliana Pérez, a 43-year-old from Villa Soldati, a pocket of extreme poverty in Buenos Aires and one of more than three million people who live in Argentina’s densely populated villas. “People are more worried about being able to feed their families than they are about the coronavirus.”
Across Latin America and the Caribbean – where an estimated 113 million people live in low-income barrios, favelas or villas – families are struggling to adapt to coronavirus lockdowns or social isolation orders because of more immediate financial imperatives.
“We’re trying to keep safe but it’s very difficult when a whole family lives in only 16 square metres,” said César Sanabria in the 45,000-strong settlement beside Buenos Aires’ exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood. “We’re not really isolating,” he admitted. “You still see a lot of people on the streets.”
Across Latin America and the Caribbean – where an estimated 113 million people live in low-income barrios, favelas or villas – families are struggling to adapt to coronavirus lockdowns or social isolation orders because of more immediate financial imperatives.
In Colombia’s capital, Bogotá, residents of deprived neighbourhoods have tied red rags to their windows to signal that those inside are going hungry. Riot police last week clashed with residents in Ciudad Bolívar, a sprawling mountainside neighbourhood, who were demanding food supplies promised by the president, Iván Duque.
I’ve got no money and nothing to eat,” complained María Ticona, 44, a mother of five from Villa Copacabana, a deprived corner of El Alto, in Bolivia. Before the lockdown – which is being strictly enforced by Bolivian troops – Ticona sold bread and scraped together perhaps $4 a day. That income has evaporated. “My kids haven’t eaten properly since the quarantine began,” she complained.“We’re trying to keep safe but it’s very difficult when a whole family lives in only 16 square metres,” said César Sanabria in the 45,000-strong settlement beside Buenos Aires’ exclusive Recoleta neighbourhood. “We’re not really isolating,” he admitted. “You still see a lot of people on the streets.”
Ivan França Jr, an epidemiologist from Brazil's University of São Paulo’s faculty of public health, said that for isolation orders to work they had to be accompanied by economic aid.
“Social distancing can’t just be: ‘Don’t leave your homes,’” he said. “This is a very elitist and middle-class mindset.”
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