This Friday (5), Asunción experiences a night of street clashes between the police and the demonstrators, who demand the departure of the President of Paraguay, Mario Abdo Benitez, due to the mismanagement of the pandemic.
The country is experiencing its worst time of health crisis, with a lack of supplies in hospitals, a record of new Covid cases and slow vaccination.
During the day, demonstrations took place in Ciudad del Este and Asunción. The act in the capital, near the Congress, began around 6 p.m. The confusion started around 8 p.m. when the police started cracking down on protesters.
Security forces fired rubber bullets and gas bombs at protesters gathering near Congress. The activists broke down security barriers, built barricades and threw stones at the officers.
The clash spread through the streets of the city center and left more than 20 injured, including protesters and police. In some places, officers waved white rags to ask activists to calm down.
After the confusion, some of the demonstrators went to the national police headquarters to ask to speak with the force commander, to find out who ordered the officers to attack them.
Street acts have intensified even after the departure of the Minister of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, this Friday (5). He resigned after the Senate passed a resolution calling for his impeachment. Its management has been criticized for the lack of supplies in hospitals, the delay in the arrival of vaccines and for cases of corruption that have not been sanctioned.
According to the Paraguayan government, there are nearly 300 Covid patients in ICUs. As of Thursday, the country had 164,000 cases of the disease and 3,256 deaths since the start of the health crisis.
In the past few days, the average number of cases was 115 per 100,000 people. The country vaccinated less than 0.1% of the population, or about 7 million people.