LIMA, Peru – The hope brought by the arrival of the first vaccines in South America is turning into anger as vaccination campaigns have turned into scandal, clientelism and corruption, shaking national governments and undermining confidence in the political establishment.
Four ministers from Peru, Argentina and Ecuador have resigned this month or are being investigated on suspicion of receiving or providing preferential access to scarce coronavirus vaccines. Prosecutors in these countries, and in Brazil, are examining thousands of other accusations of irregularities in vaccination campaigns, most involving local politicians and their families cutting the queue.
As charges of transgression ensnare more dignitaries, tension is mounting in a region where popular outrage over corruption and inequality has spread in recent years in loud protests against the political status quo. Frustration can find an outlet on the streets again – or at the ballot box, shaping voters’ decisions in upcoming contests, such as the April elections in Peru.
“Everyone knew that patients were dying,” said Robert Campos, 67, a doctor in the Peruvian capital, Lima, of the country’s politicians. “And they vaccinated all their little friends.”
Anger at powerful line cutters has been heightened by the shortage of vaccines. South America, like other developing regions, has struggled to acquire sufficient doses, as rich countries have purchased most of the available supply.
Dr. Campos said he was not on the vaccination list when limited doses arrived for hospital staff last week.
South America has been hit by the virus, which accounts for almost a fifth of all pandemic deaths worldwide – 450,000, according to the official count – despite representing about 5% of the world population. Mortality data suggest that the actual number of the pandemic in the region is at least double the official figures.
The virus also collapsed national health systems, pushed millions into poverty and plunged the region into its worst economic crisis in modern history.
Despite the heavy toll, the pandemic gained public support for most governments in the region, as several of them offered financial support to their populations and called for unity.
Vaccine scandals could put an end to this goodwill by announcing a new wave of instability, analysts warn.
“People find it much more difficult to tolerate corruption when health is at stake,” said Mariel Fornoni, a Buenos Aires researcher.
The blatant nature of some of the scandals – which reflect similar cases in Lebanon, Spain and the Philippines – outraged the region.
In Peru, a deputy minister of health was inoculated with extra doses of a clinical trial, along with his wife, sister, two children, a nephew and a niece. Ecuador’s health minister sent doses of the country’s first batch of vaccines, which the government said was reserved for the public sector, to a luxury private health facility where his mother lives.
A prominent Argentine journalist disclosed last week in a radio interview that he had a chance against the Ministry of Health after calling his friend, who was then Health Minister, exposing what the locals call the “VIP Immunization Clinic” for government allies. In Brazil, prosecutors requested the arrest of the mayor of Manaus, a northern city devastated by two waves of coronavirus, on suspicion of giving allies preferential access to the vaccine.
And in Suriname, the 38-year-old health minister assigned himself the country’s first vaccine to “set an example”.
As the complaints arrived, citizens from all over South America turned to social media to report abuses and identify suspects in court. Doctors and nurses in Peru protested outside hospitals last week to demand vaccines as the vaccine graft scandal grew in the country.
Health ministers resigned in Peru and Argentina, where the former official was accused of abuse of power; Ecuador’s health minister faces an impeachment trial and a criminal investigation.
Vaccine scandals have resonated especially in Peru, where the pandemic has killed more than 45,000 people, according to the official count, although data on excessive mortality suggest that the actual number may be more than double that number.
Earlier this month, the doctor who conducted Peru’s first vaccine test acknowledged inoculating around 250 politicians, notables and their relatives, as well as university administrators, interns and others, with undeclared extra doses. Some received three doses, according to the director of the trial, Dr. Germán Málaga, in an attempt to maximize their immunity.
The scandal has shaken a nation that is already recovering from a series of corruption investigations that have shaken confidence in democratic institutions and ensnared the country’s six most recent former presidents.
Only one of the former presidents, Martín Vizcarra, left office with high approval ratings, thanks to his tough stance on corruption. Now, Vizcarra became involved in the vaccine test scandal after it was discovered that he received an injection secretly while in office, even before Peru had approved or purchased any vaccine. He then tried to cover it up.
“We think he was a good person,” said Ana Merino, a newspaper seller in Lima whose husband died from Covid last year. “Who can we turn to? Who’s left? “
The list of those who have illegally benefited from the vaccine test in Peru includes the minister of health, the vaccine regulators, the academic hosts of the test and even the Vatican envoy to the country. The envoy, Nicola Girasoli, told local media that he received the vaccine for being an “ethics consultant” at the university responsible for the trial.
After resigning, the Peruvian Minister of Health, Pilar Mazzetti, said that taking the injection was “the worst mistake of my life”. Another politician who took advantage of the trial, the country’s chancellor, Elizabeth Astete, also resigned, after arguing that she “did not have the luxury” of falling ill at work.
The vaccine scandal could shake up Peru’s general elections in April, benefiting candidates who promise a radical break with the current political system, said Alfredo Torres, head of the Ipsos research firm in Lima.
Among them are Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of an imprisoned former president, who said he will transform Peru into a “demodura”, a mixture of Spanish words for democracy and dictatorship, and Rafael López Aliaga, who proposed to sentence politicians to death.
Since most countries in the region have so far received only a small fraction of the vaccines they need, several groups have been fighting for priority.
In Peru and Venezuela, governments said that security forces would have priority with health professionals, which sparked protests from the medical community.
In Brazil, which vaccinated only 3% of its population, a third of the country’s 210 million inhabitants are now included in the list of priorities, far exceeding the number of doses available. The group includes veterinarians, who argued that they work in the health field; truck drivers, who threatened to strike if they didn’t get the vaccine; and psychologists, firefighters and builders.
The confusion was compounded by the Brazilian government’s decision to partially delegate the vaccination order to local authorities, leading to a kaleidoscope of conflicting rules. Some prosecutors investigating the vaccine graft said the bureaucratic chaos may have been deliberately widened to hide clientelism and corruption.
“Doctors call me all the time saying they are afraid of dying,” because they cannot get vaccinated, said Edmar Fernandes, president of the Ceará doctors’ union. “This type of corruption kills.”
Mitra Taj reported from Lima; Anatoly Kurmanaev from Caracas, Venezuela; Manuela Andreoni, from Rio de Janeiro, and Daniel Politi, from Buenos Aires.
Additional reporting contributed by Isayen Herrera from Caracas, Venezuela; Ank Kuipers of Paramaribo, Suriname; José María León Cabrera from Quito, Ecuador, and Jenny Carolina González from Bogotá, Colombia.