A screenshot from the new gang's video announcement.
Members of a newly formed criminal gang based in Michoacán announced their presence with a Facebook post on Thursday.
Members of the Zicuirán New Generation Cartel (CZNG) claimed to be allied with the notoriously violent Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and warned the army and other security forces to stay out of their territory.
The video posted to Facebook shows a masked member of the group in front of around 40 others, all dressed in black sweatshirts and masks bearing the new cartel’s acronym.
He proclaims that the municipalities of Múgica and La Huacana — in which Zicuirán is located — are the cartel’s territory, and that any soldiers who enter will be stopped and their weapons seized.
“We respectfully warn the armed forces, especially the Mexican army, not to invade La Huacana and our area, which is perfectly demarcated by our boys,” the man says, adding that cartel members have fortified the perimeter.
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The man also bragged that the cartel already has the local government and police force in its pocket.
“Don’t bother trying to intervene in the police or local government. They’re our property and they happily hand over their uniforms and positions to swell our ranks,” he says.
But the message was not only directed at official agencies. The masked man also warned citizens who may operate clandestine drug laboratories or practice other illegal activities not to do so without the approval of the gang.
“Any aircraft that flies without our permission will be shot down, any vehicle that enters [our territory] will be detained. We’re not self-governing, but we want to show that with our finances and government we can excel,” the man says to the camera.
Michoacán has long been a battleground for the CJNG and former self-defense group-turned-cartel Los Viagras. The addition of a new ally does not bode well for public safety in the state.
Sonora Deputy Navarrete questions the existence of Covid-19 patients.
A lawmaker with the Social Encounter Party (PES) in Sonora expressed doubts Wednesday about the gravity of the coronavirus and said he has it on good authority that it can be cured by drinking cinnamon tea.
“There are honest doctors on social networks who say that Covid-19 is not as serious as advertised, they even say that by drinking cinnamon tea morning, noon and night, the virus will die in the throat,” said Carlos Navarrete Aguirre.
The remarks came during a meeting with the state’s health commission at which Navarrete urged members to reopen the state because he believes social distancing measures and coronavirus restrictions violate the fundamental rights of Sonorans.
Apart from advocating for the curative powers of cinnamon, the legislator went on to question the very existence of patients with the coronavirus since nobody seems to know anyone who has been infected, he stated, and that the hospitals he has visited look empty.
The remarks drew outraged responses from the governor’s office and Navarrete’s own party.
Fellow PES Deputy Jesús Alonso Montes Piña was particularly taken aback by Navarrete’s statements as Montes’ 25-year-old son and ex-wife were diagnosed with coronavirus on May 5.
“How difficult it is for me to hear this statement from a deputy who says Covid-19 does not exist. Tell me about it! Tell me that Covid-19 does not exist and that this is a farce,” he said. “You cannot make these kinds of statements.”
The Sonora government’s spokesperson on the coronavirus epidemic, epidemiologist Gerardo Álvarez Hernández, expressed extreme doubt over Navarrete’s claims.
“Not even the most advanced scientists in the world have been able to find the specific treatment needed to mitigate the suffering it causes in those who are infected. I seriously invite this person and others to show us the scientific evidence that cinnamon tea has a positive effect,” Álvarez said, pleading for people to act responsibly before spreading information that folk remedies can cure the virus.
A blockade in Michoacán protests intentional spreading of coronavirus.
Over two dozen medical centers in eastern Michoacán remain closed due to threats against medical personnel based on false accounts of intentional transmission of the coronavirus.
The state Health Ministry made the decision to keep the 27 clinics closed after rumors continued to circulate in various communities that medical personnel and National Guard troops had been “spreading coronavirus” and poisoning wells under the guise of fumigation operations.
The citizens blocked highways and roads in the municipalities of Ciudad Hidalgo, Tuxpan and Zitácuaro over the weekend.
Governor Silvano Aueroles opened a dialogue with the protesters on Tuesday, and the misinformed reluctantly removed the barriers.
“Dialogue is the best option. Listening to each other is always the best alternative to violence,” said Aureoles, who also patted himself and his administration on the back, saying that “we showed our faces and always will, even in the most remote corner of Michoacán, wherever the government’s intervention is needed, because we’re a responsible government.
However, despite promises to meet their demands and conduct informational talks in communities to keep residents informed, threats against frontline workers continued to circulate in the region through the week.
The tense atmosphere led the state Health Ministry to keep the medical centers closed to protect doctors, nurses and other health professionals.
Governor Aueroles urged his constituents not to fall victims to rumors and fake news reports that “are detrimental to the provision of medical services … during this pandemic.”
A shipment of ventilators arrives in Mexico from the US. They were purchased with the help of donated funds.
Mexico has the money to buy as many coronavirus test kits as are needed, Deputy Health Minister Hugo López-Gatell said on Thursday as the country recorded its biggest single-day increase to its Covid-19 case tally.
The official’s assurance came in response to a question at Thursday night’s coronavirus press briefing about why Mexico has performed so few Covid-19 tests.
“Was it a matter of budget or was it a technical decision?” a reporter asked López-Gatell.
The latter, he responded, explaining that “the tests have an objective and the objective is epidemiological surveillance.”
López-Gatell said that 100% of people who have coronavirus-like symptoms that are serious enough to warrant hospitalization are tested.
Covid-19 cases by state as of Thursday. Another 2,409 were added to the total yesterday, a new record. milenio
“What is the limit to the tests? As many cases as there are in this condition. Do we lack tests? The answer is no. We have money for tests, we have tests, more are coming … 300,000 will arrive on the weekend and if we need 600,000 more, we’ll buy 600,000 more,” he said.
But López-Gatell gave no indication that the government intends to test more widely, which many experts say is essential in order to detect mild or asymptomatic cases of Covid-19 and limit new outbreaks of the disease.
Earlier in the press conference, Health Ministry Director of Epidemiology José Luis Alomía said that 155,932 people have now been tested for Covid-19, a figure that equates to about 1,200 tests per 1 million inhabitants. The rate is very low compared to many other countries, meaning that large numbers of Covid-19 cases are not included in the government’s official statistics.
The Health Ministry last month presented estimates of case numbers based on the sentinel epidemiological surveillance system, which indicated that there were about eight undetected Covid-19 cases for each confirmed one. But López-Gatell said last week that the system is no longer the principal means of measuring the pandemic because it was no longer practical, given the higher rapidity with which new cases are occurring.
Mexico has now recorded 42,595 confirmed coronavirus cases since the start of the pandemic after adding 2,409 new cases on Thursday, a 20% increase over the previous single-day high of 1,997 cases recorded two days earlier.
Covid-19 deaths recorded as of Thursday. milenio
Of the confirmed cases, 10,057 are considered active, Alomía said. Mexico City has the highest number of active cases followed by México state, Tabasco, Veracruz and Baja California. There are also 26,746 suspected coronavirus cases across the country.
Alomía also reported 257 additional coronavirus-related fatalities, lifting Mexico’s death toll to 4,477. Based on confirmed cases and deaths, the fatality rate is 10.5 per 100 cases, more than 50% higher than the global rate of 6.8.
Mexico City has now recorded more than 1,100 confirmed coronavirus cases, although some media reports have claimed that the real figure is much higher. Baja California has the second highest death toll in the country, with 495 fatalities as of Thursday, followed by México state and Tabasco, where 433 and 263 people, respectively, have lost their lives to Covid-19.
In addition to the confirmed Covid-19 deaths, 420 fatalities are suspected to have been caused by the disease, Alomía said.
Data presented at last night’s press conference shows that 35% of hospital beds in Mexico set aside for Covid-19 patients requiring general care are currently occupied, while 29% of those with ventilators are in use.
However, occupancy levels in Mexico City hospitals are much higher: 73% of general care beds and 58% of those with ventilators are currently in use.
Mexico’s ventilator stocks were given a boost on Thursday with the arrival of 2,000 of the life-saving machines on a flight from Chicago, United States.
Foreign Affairs Minister Marcelo Ebrard described the new Philips ventilators as “a grand treasure,” explaining that “it’s very difficult to purchase 2,000 ventilators in the world today.”
“It’s very significant that they have arrived today, because right now is when they will be given the most use,” he said.
In a Twitter post, Ebrard thanked several companies that contributed funds to buy the ventilators.
“Thanks to the Alberto Bailleres foundation, Grupo México, IEnova, Iusa, Bimbo, Televisa [and] Mastercard for your contribution [to purchase] 2,000 ventilators. … Very good news for everyone!!”
Small businesses are eligible for 25,000-peso loans if they meet certain conditions.
Small businesses across Mexico have been slow to apply for the federal government’s coronavirus aid loans of 25,000 pesos (US $1,036).
As of Tuesday, almost a month after the start of the aid program, the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS), which issues the loans, had only handed out 146,621 loans, representing just 20% of the official target of 645,000.
Due to a lack of demand, the last day to apply for the loans will be May 15, IMSS director Zoé Robledo announced.
Experts cite two reasons for the lack of enthusiasm in the program, one being the low amount offered, and the other being that many businesses have not been able to meet the government’s stipulation that they have maintained staffing levels during the coronavirus crisis.
Raymundo Tenorio, an economics and business professor at the Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Learning, pointed out that the government’s condition that small businesses did not lay off staff in the first three months of 2020 has proven impossible for many business owners.
He calls it a program with good intentions but bad foundations.
“How do they want companies not to fire anyone if commerce and all activity dropped off? The program is headed for failure because of the kind of conditions they set,” Tenorio warned.
The government needs to urgently change its criteria, he said. One of the conditions could be that small business owners use the loan funds to rehire workers they have had to lay off.
Mario di Costanzo, former president of the consumer protection agency Condusef, agreed with the Tenorio that the program is poorly designed, and the low numbers of applicants are due to the inability to comply with the non-layoff requirement.
“More than half of businesses have reduced their workforce, many others no longer plan to resume operations, at least this year, and for others, the 25,000-peso loan is of little use,” di Constanzo said.
A better option, he said, would have been for the government to pay employers’ social security costs for workers, or that the government itself pays workers minimum wage, which he argues would be more effective ways to spend the federal funds allocated for loans.
The governors of nine states have indicated that they won’t strictly follow the plan announced by the federal government on Wednesday to start lifting coronavirus restrictions on June 1.
The governors of Jalisco, Baja California Sur, Michoacán, Morelos, Tamaulipas, Guerrero, Puebla, Coahuila and Nuevo León said they won’t reopen schools before the end of the current academic year, while Jalisco Governor Enrique Alfaro also announced that his state will follow its own economic reactivation plan.
During a virtual meeting attended by federal Education Minister Esteban Moctezuma, Interior Minister Olga Sánchez and state governors, Alfaro said that is is too soon to think about reopening schools and to do so on June 1 would be a “grave error.”
Eight of his counterparts agreed. Among the dissenters was Miguel Barbosa of Puebla, a governor with Morena, Mexico’s ruling party. “We can’t return to normality on June 1,” he said, because Covid-19 cases are still on the rise.
Miguel Riquelme of Coahuila said that students will attend virtual classes for the rest of the school year to avoid possible coronavirus infections, while Silvano Aureoles of Michoacán said that his government “won’t expose” children to a “forced” return to classes.
Other governors gave similar explanations to justify their decision not to resume classes according to the federal government’s timetable.
Alfaro announced later that the Jalisco government had developed its own plan to reopen the economy and would not follow that announced by federal authorities. He said that phase zero of his state’s plan will begin on Monday and last for at least 15 days.
The governor said industries that were not designated as essential by the federal government, and which are vital for supply chains, will be able to restart activities during phase zero once they have put health protocols in place to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
“They’ll be able to start operations at 50% of their capacity; we’re going to establish specific protocols,” Alfaro said.
He also said that manufacturing companies will be required to collaborate with health authorities to test workers periodically for Covid-19. Their health should be monitored constantly, Alfaro added.
Hotels and motels in Jalisco will be allowed to accommodate guests during phase zero but must restrict access to common areas. Among other businesses that will be allowed to operate starting Monday are hair salons, daycare centers, car dealerships and furniture stores. Restaurants and cafes will be permitted to operate at 50% capacity.
Bars, cantinas, nightclubs, casinos, movie theaters, gyms and sports clubs must remain closed during the initial phase of the reopening and the suspension of events with more than 50 people remains in place. Churches and other places of worship can open but only for individual visits, not religious services.
Alfaro stressed that people considered more vulnerable to coronavirus, such as the elderly, pregnant women and those with chronic diseases, will not yet be permitted to return to work and should remain in their homes.
The use of face masks remains obligatory for all Jalisco residents while they are in public places.
As of Wednesday, the state had recorded 699 confirmed coronavirus cases, 218 of which are currently active, and 59 deaths.
Some of the mummies of Guanajuato: not all are accounted for.
A former director of Guanajuato’s world-famous mummy museum has accused the municipal government of mishandling the collection, leading to the likely disappearance of 22 mummies, among other problems.
Cultural event promoter Paloma Reyes Lacayo filed her initial complaint with the National Institute of Anthropology and History (INAH) in November 2019, and as cultural attractions like the museum prepare to resume services in the coming weeks according to the federal government’s three-phase reopening plan, the mummies are nowhere to be found.
But as intriguing as a heist of almost two dozen mummies may be, the more likely explanation, according to Reyes, is much less exciting.
“In my opinion it’s highly probable that … the bodies have suffered skeletonization,” she said, meaning the carefully preserved skin, hair and clothing of the missing mummies has most likely disintegrated, leaving nothing but the bones.
Reyes attributed the process to “the inadequate conditions in which they’ve been handled and transported” and called out the government of Mayor Alejandro Navarro Saldaña for the mistreatment and unauthorized movement of the collection.
She said the city’s cultural heritage is put at risk by Navarro’s government, which has taken specimens to festivals and fairs in Zacatecas, San Luis Potosí and León — and even a race car rally in the city’s underground road system — without proper authorization or adherence to conservation protocols.
Having served as head of the museum from 2015 to 2018, Reyes said she is well aware that the museum’s protocols do not allow for the pieces to be transported outside of the municipality.
Although the Museum of the Mummies of Guanajuato normally boasts a collection of 117 pieces of mummified remains, including 111 complete female and male bodies, four heads and two fetuses, Reyes said the current inventory can only account for 95 pieces.
She requested the intervention of INAH, UNESCO and the Guanajuato state auditor’s office to safeguard the remaining pieces before the world’s largest collection of mummies incurs further losses.
“The mummies are the face Guanajuato shows the world, and this situation is critical,” said Reyes. “I’m worried they’ll continue to be desecrated … [by] this excessive obsession to display them all over the place.”
INAH has not commented on the situation and did not respond to requests from the newspaper Excélsior for interviews. Its only response to Reyes’ complaint was a January 9 internal memo announcing that an investigation into her original report from November was underway.
Reyes later alerted the institute of the possible loss of the 22 mummies in a subsequent report made on January 21.
Factories such as that of Leoni Wiring Systems will be able to reopen on Monday.
Aerospace, aeronautical and automotive factories in Yucatán will resume operations on Monday, announced Governor Mauricio Vila Dosal, who said necessary hygiene protocols in this sector have been put in place to safeguard the health of workers and the public in general.
Next up will be the construction industry, which will work on developing and implementing sanitary protocols in order to reopen on June 1.
“Health has priority over any other issue, but we are also aware of the importance that the economy has in guaranteeing income for families. That is why we are going to start with the opening of activities in these sectors. We know that everyone wants to open up again but we have to do it gradually,” said the governor, who held his first virtual meeting with members of the Yucatán Business Council to discuss plans to reopen businesses.
“We cannot throw away what we have done in the last two months. In the next few days, the peak moments of the coronavirus are coming, and we all have to act responsibly, as we have done thus far,” he continued.
The 90-minute meeting was the first in a series of planned daily discussions with experts and stakeholders on how to open various sectors of the economy.
On May 15 the group will discuss the agricultural industry, the next day it will take on the construction industry, followed by commerce and tourism, professional and religious organizations, and scientific and educational institutions.
The series of meetings will culminate in a May 22 announcement of a comprehensive return-to-work plan for each of the sectors.
Businesses that open before they are permitted to do so will be met with sanctions including closures and fines, Vila Dosal cautioned, advocating patience in the name of health.
As of Wednesday, Yucatán had seen 924 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 54 deaths.
At the July 2019 inauguration of the National Guard, Mexico's top military commanders flank the president. The man actually responsible for the Guard, Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo, stands behind them.
Combating insecurity and violence requires the discipline and professionalism of the army and navy, President López Obrador said on Thursday, three days after he published a decree ordering the armed forces to continue carrying out public security tasks for another four years.
Speaking at his morning press conference, López Obrador brushed off criticism that he is militarizing the country, asserting that he is convinced that the armed forces are needed to reduce the high levels of violent crime that plague Mexico.
“Even though they criticize me, [saying] I want to militarize the country, I’m going to continue insisting that the armed forces must help us in public security tasks,” he said.
López Obrador said the only thing that could change his mind would be proof that the military had committed human rights abuses while carrying out public security tasks on his watch.
The armed forces have committed or have been accused of committing a range of human rights violations in the past, including an army massacre of 22 presumed criminals in Tlatlaya, México state, in 2014.
López Obrador said that he was also convinced that the National Guard, the new security force that was supposed to be the centerpiece of his administration’s security strategy, must have a “close relationship” with the military.
“I don’t want … the National Guard to end up like the Federal Police because it would be a complete failure,” he said.
According to some analysts, the president has already conceded that the new security force has failed by publishing Monday’s decree ordering the military to continue carrying out public security tasks until the final year of his six-year term.
Meanwhile, the Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights said the decree doesn’t establish sufficient mechanisms for oversight of the military as it carries out the public security tasks the president has entrusted it with.
“The agreement establishes that this supervision will be carried out by the internal control body … of the armed forces, … which is insufficient to guarantee effective supervision of an external nature,” the UN office said.
It said the decree contradicts articles in the constitutional reform that created the National Guard, which stipulate that public security tasks must be carried out under civilian command. The decree also fails “to honor the principles of transparency and accountability that must govern the conduct of all security forces including the armed forces,” the UN office said.
Mexico’s National Guard: ‘nothing more than a branch of the military.’
The president’s decision also undermines his attacks on his two most recent predecessors, who both used the armed forces to combat Mexico’s notoriously violent criminal organizations.
López Obrador has repeatedly blamed the high levels of violence that plague Mexico today on the security strategy that was implemented by former president Felipe Calderón – who launched the so-called war on drugs in late 2006 – and perpetuated by Enrique Peña Nieto, who left office in 2018.
Despite pledging that his administration would reduce violence by addressing its root causes through social programs – the so-called “hugs, not bullets” approach – AMLO, as the president is known, is now perpetuating the militarized model himself, seemingly acknowledging that what he has tried to date has not worked.
Indeed, violence remains at alarmingly high levels even as the country hunkers down amid the coronavirus pandemic.
But AMLO’s current confidence in the military belies his attitude in the past, said Héctor de Mauleón, a columnist for the newspaper El Universal, who pointed out that López Obrador was highly critical of the armed forces before he became president.
“The loss of life unleashed since the government of Felipe Calderón ordered the war against narcos, the abuses of power, the violations of human rights, the extrajudicial killings, the enforced disappearances, became … the core of López Obrador’s discourse,” de Mauleón wrote this week.
Before he was president, AMLO declared “time and again” that the military should be taken off the streets and return to their barracks, he said.
“He was frequently heard saying that the army was ‘to defend national sovereignty’ not carry out police work,” de Mauleón wrote.
However, during López Obrador’s presidency, the role of the military has widened even further, the columnist pointed out. Not only is it carrying out public security tasks, it’s also in charge of customs, building the new Santa Lucía airport and delivering petroleum, de Mauleón said.
The army now is the same “inept, negligent and complicit” army that AMLO railed against, adding that the presidential decree published on Monday is not congruent with the expectations López Obrador sowed for years.
“The army in the streets led the country to one of the most painful and bloody periods of its history. López Obrador will keep it there, betraying the words that he said for years, betraying those who voted for him,” de Mauleón wrote.
But from the perspective of Alejandro Hope, a prominent security analyst, AMLO’s legalization of the use of the military in public security tasks is no surprise.
Also writing in El Universal, Hope said that the presidential decree was destined to be published since last year’s approval of the reform that created the National Guard. The reform states that the president has the authority to use the military for public security tasks for a period of five years as the National Guard develops its structure and capacities.
The approval of the reform loaded the gun and all that remained was to pull the trigger, Hope wrote.
He also said that publication of the decree was not surprising given that the National Guard has not recruited a single member on its own. About 80% of its members formerly belonged to the army or navy and the remainder are former Federal Police officers, Hope said.
He said that practically all of the National Guard’s equipment came from the armed forces and its barracks were built by the Ministry of Defense (Sedena) on land donated by Sedena and not the Security Ministry which, on paper, is in charge of the new security force.
“In practice, the National Guard is nothing more than a branch of the army. … It was only a matter of time before the farce was revealed,” Hope wrote.
The “central objective” of the 2019 constitutional reform was not to create the National Guard but to institutionalize military participation in public security tasks, he said.
“The open and direct use of the armed forces in police tasks is what both the president and the military commanders wanted from the beginning. They didn’t opt for this route because the National Guard ‘failed’: that has been nothing but a distraction.”
The stoplight system indicates restrictions regarding activities in the left column. From the top they are public health measures, labor, public spaces, vulnerable persons and schools.
Business groups and analysts have welcomed the government’s plan to begin reopening the economy but not without criticism over a lack of clarity and detail.
The government revealed a three-phase plan Wednesday for the eventual lifting of coronavirus restrictions and a color-coded “stoplight” system to determine each state’s readiness to return to what is being called a “new normal.”
The plan stipulates that starting June 1 social distancing measures will be gradually lifted on a state by state basis depending on the severity of their outbreaks.
However, the president of the Mexican Employers Federation (Coparmex) said the plan is short on clarity particularly with respect to the criteria that will be used to determine which color lights are assigned to each of Mexico’s 32 states.
(States will be assigned a red, orange, yellow or green light on a weekly basis, with each color determining which coronavirus mitigation restrictions can be lifted.)
Coparmex president de Hoyos questioned the criteria that will determine the color of lights assigned.
“We agree with the need to have a plan for a gradual and staggered reopening. However, the content presented today is insufficient in order to have clarity in the procedures,” said Coparmex chief Gustavo de Hoyos.
He also said that the government failed to make it clear whether the same color light will apply to an entire state or whether different colors will apply to different municipalities depending on the size of their coronavirus outbreaks.
“Companies need clear specifications in order to be able to prepare to restart activities immediately after the health authorities say they can,” de Hoyos said.
The Coparmex president also said the plan to reopen the economy next week in 269 coronavirus-free municipalities will only have a “minimal” impact on the economy because only 1% of businesses are located in them.
Enoch Castellanos also said that small and medium-sized businesses need more support from the government to help them survive closure orders and the coronavirus-induced economic downturn.
The stoplight map shows the alert level and a trending indicator by state.
The director of analysis at the Monex financial group, described the plan outlined on Wednesday as “disjointed.”
The announcement of steps to reopen the economy is “positive news” but “there are still a lot of [unanswered] questions,” Carlos González Tabares said.
“I believe that a lot of details are missing,” González said, explaining that there is a lack of clarity about how new outbreaks will be mitigated as more and more people return to their normal daily lives. “The reopening has to be very cautious,” he said.
Raymundo Tenorio, an economist and emeritus professor of the Tec. de Monterrey University, said that it appears that the “stoplight” system plan was made on the fly, asserting that the government needs to think about how supply chains will work if businesses are open in one state but not another.
José Luis de la Cruz, general director of the Institute for Industrial Development and Economic Growth, a think tank, had a more positive view. He said the strategy is “positive and opportune because it allows companies to make an estimate of the time and stages in which they will be able to open.”
“The services sector is expected to reopen in September so [companies] can assess if they can hold out until that date or if they will have to dismiss staff and make adjustments,” he said.
Economist de la Torre: plan looks improvised.
However, while the government has a plan to allow businesses to reopen gradually, it doesn’t have a solid plan to support them financially through the crisis with measures such as tax breaks, de la Cruz said.
Rodolfo de la Torre, director of social development at the Espinosa Yglesias Study Center think tank, described the government’s plan as “improvised,” claiming that it rushed to develop it due to the heavy loss of jobs last month and the prediction that as many as 10.7 million additional people could be pushed into poverty as a result of the measures put in place to reduce the spread of Covid-19.
“Job losses could reach 1 million in May and if the stoppage due to the pandemic continues we could reach 1.5 million,” he said.
De la Torre also said the government should have provided income support for people who lost their jobs or who are unable to stay at home due to their economic circumstances. He expressed skepticism that the economy will recover quickly once the coronavirus mitigation restrictions are lifted, as Finance Ministry officials have claimed will occur.
“Suggesting that there will be a quick rebound in [economic] activity is far removed from reality,” de la Torre said, especially considering that the government hasn’t provided resources enabling “people and companies to resist” the coronavirus crisis.
