Colombia closes June with the worst figures in the pandemic

Colombia is immersed in a spiral of crisis with no end in sight. The Latin American country has been going through a critical situation in recent weeks marked by strong protests, in which violent clashes between police and demonstrators have been repeated, as well as by a new setback in the COVID-19 that has resulted in more than 17,000 deaths in the last month.

The figures make June the worst month for Colombia since the start of the pandemic. Authorities have counted a total of 17,000 deaths and 800,000 new infections in the last 30 days, a new record number of COVID-19 deaths in the country.

Ministry of Health data show a strong upward trend. The daily average number of infections has been around 27,000 - 10,000 more than in May - and the daily average number of deaths exceeded 550 in June, with as many as 700 people dying in a single day.

In this dynamic, 610 deaths and 27,908 new cases have been recorded on Thursday. Although 27,846 patients have also been recovered in the last 24 hours, Colombia has the highest death rate per million inhabitants in the world, ahead of countries such as Botswana, Brazil and India.

The Latin American country is in the third wave of the pandemic, unable to coordinate a robust health response. Since March 2020, the authorities have counted a total of 107,000 deaths and more than 4 million infections. In addition, there is still pressure on hospitals in several parts of the country. 

However, the National Vaccination Plan launched in February is progressing with relative success. Health authorities yesterday inoculated a total of 457,000 new doses in a country that ranks fourth in the region in terms of vaccination, behind only Brazil, Chile and Argentina. 

So far, Colombia has administered some 18 million vaccines. Some 22.6 per cent of the population has received a dose, while 13.2 per cent have already received the full course. Thus, more than 6.5 million Colombians are immunised against the virus. 

In addition, a new batch of 1 million vaccines from Pfizer landed in Colombia between Tuesday and Wednesday this week. The Minister of Health and Social Protection, Fernando Ruiz Gómez, stated that they have received 25 million vaccines "without counting the donations that are about to arrive". 

Among the donations that Colombia will receive in the coming weeks is one from the United States. President Joe Biden made a commitment to his Colombian counterpart to send 2.5 million doses during the first conversation between the leaders since the Democrat's arrival in the White House.

"This means 5 million more vaccines than we had projected in February," he added. The head of the health ministry said that the maximum vaccination capacity "would be around 540,000 doses per day". At this rate, Colombia would reach the immunisation target for more than 35 million people by the end of the year.

Under this pretext, President Iván Duque decided on 8 June to reopen the borders and reduce prohibitions in order to reactivate the ailing economy. However, the significant increase in the number of cases and the serious epidemiological situation in the country has led to an upsurge in criticism of the President from various civilian quarters. 

The climate of hostility in Colombia erupted with the tax reform proposed in April by the government of Iván Duque. This proposal contained harmful aspects for the middle and lower classes, such as a tax increase that would deepen the strong economic inequality, according to social actors.

The measure was the trigger for the new outbreak of protests, a continuation of those that took place in November 2019. Rallies in various parts of the country, especially in Cali, forced the president to back down on the bill.

Despite the withdrawal of the tax reform, the protests continued for several weeks in response to the severe police repression and only slowed down due to the high rate of contagion.

Official figures put the total number of deaths during the protests at 25, with "four murders fully clarified". However, Human Rights Watch's Americas director, José Miguel Vivanco, reported on Tuesday that the NGO has received 81 "credible" reports of killings at the protests.

The organisation has confirmed 40 of them, including 36 protesters or bystanders, three police officers and one civil servant, according to Vivanco.

In this context, President Duque's helicopter was attacked last Friday while flying over the southern region of Catatumbo. The aircraft came under fire, forcing the group to make an emergency landing minutes before arriving in the Venezuelan border city of Cúcuta. 

The president was accompanied by the governor of the Department of Norte de Santander, Silvano Serrano, and by the ministers of defence and interior, Diego Molano and Daniel Palacios. "Both the aerial device and the capacity of the aircraft prevented anything lethal from happening," Duque said. 

The cabinet of the presidency released images showing the bullet impacts. Some of the projectiles hit the propellers in an attack described as a "cowardly attack" by the president. 

The perpetrator of the attack has not yet been identified, but suspicions have fallen on numerous armed groups operating in the area, such as the now defunct Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN). In any case, the president assured that the assassination attempt would not make him stop fighting drug trafficking, terrorism and organised crime. 

"The message is that Colombia is always strong in the face of crime and our institutions are above any threat", said the leader of the Executive in words that constitute a declaration of intent in the exercise of his mandate.

Latin America Coordinator: José Antonio Sierra.