Marí­a Magdalena Arréllaga

Independent Photojournalist and Visual Storyteller
  
Paraguay Se Levanta: Mass Protests in Paraguay Amid a Public Health and Political Crisis
Public Project
Paraguay Se Levanta: Mass Protests in Paraguay Amid a Public Health and Political Crisis
Copyright María Magdalena Arréllaga 2024
Updated Mar 2021
Topics Civil Rights, Confrontation, Corruption, Documentary, Human Rights, Latin America, Media, Photography, Photojournalism, Politics, Protests, Street, Youth
In early March, health workers began protesting the dismal state of Paraguay's public health system and hospitals which were at capacity and facing outages of critical supplies and medications to treat covid patients. Facing public pressure, health minister Julio Mazzoleni resigned on March 5, the same day that thousands of Paraguayans took to the streets to protest the government's lack of management and transparency through the pandemic while the country's public health system bordered collapse, demanding the ouster of the president, Mario Abdo Benítez. Mass protests, led largely by young Paraguayans tired of the country's historic corruption, have spread throughout the country and been met by significant police repression, resulting in dozens of demonstrators injured, detained and one death. Amid a deepening public health and political crisis, coronavirus cases continue to rise in the country while vaccination of the wider population has yet to begin.

I covered the protests for The New York Times and for Bloomberg
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Paraguay Se Levanta: Mass Protests in Paraguay Amid a Public Health and Political Crisis by María Magdalena Arréllaga
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