Inequality in Latin America caused higher COVID-19 death rates: Study

Latin America has been disproportionately affected by COVID-19 as a result of pre-existing structural inequalities in the region, a joint report by Amnesty International and the Center for Economic and Social Rights found.

Although only 8.4% of the world’s population live in Latin America, the region has endured 28% of total global deaths due to COVID-19, according to the report released on Wednesday.

The report highlights that governments have not taken “sufficient action to implement universal social security mechanisms and expand coverage" to ensure the most disadvantaged groups were protected during the pandemic.

“Governments have the obligation to proactively mobilize the resources needed to protect their populations from the worst impacts of discrimination, disease, and economic disaster. If Latin American countries had done this in the decades before the pandemic, the region could have avoided so much pain and loss of life,” said Kate Donald, Acting Executive Director of CESR.

More than 1.6 million people in Latin America died due to COVID-19.

The report concludes that the countries in the region that are most unequal are the ones that have suffered the most deaths. For example, Mexico, Brazil and Peru, where the richest 1% of the population earns over 30% of national wealth, have recorded the highest numbers of COVID-19 deaths in the region proportional to their populations.

Chile, where 20% of the country’s richest have 10 times more than its poorest, has the sixth-highest COVID-19 death rate per capita behind Peru, Brazil, Colombia, Paraguay, and Mexico.

Women — particularly indigenous women or of African descent — have been hit especially hard by coronavirus because they have lost more jobs than men. Women continue having a disproportionate role in caring for children, which affects their “enjoyment of rights”, says the report.

“Latin America’s present situation is the result of hundreds of years of colonial injustices that mean certain groups have been historically and systematically denied their rights,” said Erika Guevara-Rosas, Americas director at Amnesty International.