The coronavirus lockdown has halted the country’s informal economy with results
America Reyes sits on the steps of Guatemala’s National Cathedral, her four-year-old son through her and a white flag in her hand.
It is a symbol of surrender, but of hunger eaten away amid the strict coronavirus lockdown that has paralyzed the country’s informal economy.
“We are asking for help, we are in need,” he said.
Reyes, 37, used to sell donuts and cakes, but the store where she worked closed amid the pandemic and Reyes struggles to pay rent and feed her two children.
Now he travels only about 4 kilometers every day from his small apartment on the outskirts of the capital to the historic center asking for help.
“We are suffering from this crisis,” he said. This crisis affects us all. “
White flags began appearing on the streets of Guatemala City in early April, some time after the quarantine imposed on the town of Patzún, where the first cases of community-borne coronavirus were detected.
Since then, flags have become commonplace in the country, with a total lexicon of wishes reflected in their colors: white means hunger; red is for medicine; Black, yellow or blue means that a woman, child or elderly person is in danger of violence. Parezo Sanchez, 77, has been shining shoes in Guatemala City’s central plaza for thirteen years to help his family. Now he’s on the street with a white flag. ” There are no paintings at the moment,” he said.
Guatemala has reported deaths and 2512 infections from the virus. But the economic fallout from the pandemic has affected millions of people.
Like Reyes and Sánchez, only about 70% of Guatemalans make a precarious living in the informal unregulated and precarious economy.
Measures imposed by President Alejandro Giammattei’s government to curb the spread of the virus, such as the suspension of public shipping and curfews, have hit those living in poverty hardest.
“This is one more sign of a society that lacks the social and does not have a labor market that allows other people to have savings to face the crisis,” said Jonathan Menkos, executive director of the Central American Institute for Fiscal Studies (ICEFI). . he told The Guardian. ” [The white flags] are the clearest evidence that social and economic style leaves other people behind,” he said. “They can’t go a month without resources to eat. ” More than 60% of Guatemalans live in poverty and the country has one of the highest rates of child malnutrition in the world. Menkos fears that the existing crisis will only worsen those disastrous statistics. In March, Congress passed a series of emergency measures worth millions of dollars. These efforts included a stimulus of 1,000 quetzales (about $130) for more than 2 million people, as well as boxes of food for those in need.
The government says it has delivered only about 190,000 boxes of food to more than 1. 2 million people. But two months later, many needy Guatemalans say they still haven’t won the aid. “It’s not for everyone,” he said. We haven’t won anything from the government, those who have won are those who don’t want it.