Ecuador — a country of 17 million with more than 4,000 confirmed cases of coronavirus and more than 200 deaths — has become one of the Latin American countries hardest hit by the pandemic. Seventy percent of confirmed cases are in the coastal province of Guayas, whose capital, Guayaquil, is the second largest city in the country and where the number of deaths exceeds that of other Latin American countries such as Mexico, Peru, Colombia or Argentina.
The first measures taken by President Lenín Moreno’s administration were firm: declaration of a state of emergency, compulsory social isolation and a national curfew.
However, these do not seem to take into account the need for economic survival.
Guayas province has more than 3.5 million residents, according to the 2010 census, and stark inequality. There are private, gated communities with guards and security cameras protecting luxurious homes. During the first weekend of social isolation, the province’s governor announced the suspension of 38 events — including at least two weddings in the more affluent areas of Guayaquil and Samborondón — and 31 establishments were closed for failing to heed the orders. The following week, in a gated community in Samborondón, the isolation order fell on deaf ears: Police had to interrupt a golf tournament and force the golfers to return to their homes.
On the other hand, there are the poor areas with precarious conditions, overcrowded homes and little access to basic utilities: The 2010 census found that 26 percent of people in Guayaquil did not have access to drinking water and 53 percent lacked a public sewage system. Guayas is also the province with the largest number of illegal settlements (312 in 2,098 hectares). Furthermore, more than 60 percent of the population have no records with social security, which implies that they are probably underemployed; and 20 percent are cleaners, domestic assistants, street vendors or laborers. Durán, one of the most affected areas within the province, is also one of the most densely populated: 1,026 residents per square kilometer.
It is a province in which many people live hand to mouth: If they don’t work one day, they don’t eat that day. Guayaquil is the city with the highest poverty rate in the country: 11.2 percent.
It’s clear the Ecuadoran authorities have not seriously considered all of these factors. The governor of Guayas allowed a massively attended soccer game to take place after the first positive case in the country was reported.
Guayas now has the highest number of police reports for noncompliance: 1,349 as of April 3. In the hours when it is possible to circulate for strictly necessary activities, such as buying provisions or medicines, improvised markets have been set up with people selling and buying products, without masks. Even elderly people have been seen out, a sight reported in other provinces as well. All this occurs even though Guayas has already been declared a security zone and the military has been deployed.
These are the signs that, in a province with so much inequality, the government’s orders to stay at home present a good part of the population with a terrifying dilemma: taking the risk of catching the virus or not having anything to eat.
Fines or threats of jail add more anxiety, but they do not work because, on a daily basis, these people face threats that also put their lives at risk, such as the absence of basic services, social security or even stable employment that allows them to keep their families fed.
To be effective and protect the greatest number of lives, government measures must be in accordance with this reality, hidden and silenced under normal conditions, but which has become loud in its relentlessness and devastation under the global threat of the coronavirus pandemic.
María Sol Borja is an Ecuadoran journalist and politics editor of the news site gk.city.