Coronavirus Feeds on Latin America’s Political Gap
Populist leaders going into a nativist crouch make an already divided continent more vulnerable.
Multilateralism might help.
Photographer: Orlando Sierra/AFP via Getty Images
At midnight on March 17, Paraguay closed down the Friendship Bridge to Brazil. It was the first time in more than half a century that traffic stopped on the emblematic land link between the two South American neighbors, where 1.5 million people cross every year. Brazil has sealed its land borders with eight neighbors, while Colombia banned all incoming flights for a month, whether carrying foreigners or Colombian nationals.
With the novel coronavirus on the wing, shutting down is part of the new global normal. The danger in Latin America is that such sweeping measures feed the tempting illusion that walls, willfulness and nativism are the way to beat a threat that is already ubiquitous and flourishes amid official fumbling and crowd-pleasing obscurantism.