[News] Coronavirus in Paraguay: the president announces the departure of 3 ministers after protests against the management of the pandemic

[UltimaTexCS]

Protests in Paraguay against the government's management of the pandemic ended in violent clashes on Friday and led the country's president to announce the departure of several ministers from his cabinet.

Security forces fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters in downtown Asunción, while a group of people broke down police barriers, set fires and threw stones at officers, local press reported.

The altercations left about twenty injured and turned the historic center of the capital into a kind of battlefield, amid the growing indignation of the po[CENSORED]tion over the increase in coronavirus cases and the lack of medicines and vaccines.

What happened led the opposition, which accuses the executive of corruption, to request the departure of President Mario Abdo Benítez.

The president, for his part, announced changes in his cabinet on Saturday, shortly after asking his ministers to make the positions available to him.

The measures were announced while new citizen demonstrations were held demanding the resignation of the president.

A man during the violence in Asunción.
IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS
Downtown Asunción became a kind of battlefield.

What the president said

In a recorded message, the president indicated that the changes were made "for the sake of pacification" and in view of the expectations of the citizens.

The president announced that the Minister of Education, Eduardo Petta, will be replaced; the Minister of Women, Nilda Romero; and the Chief of Staff of the Presidency, Juan Ernesto Villamayor, with the rank of minister.

The head of the Ministry of Health, Julio Mazzoleni, had announced his resignation on Friday morning after a meeting with Abdo Benítez.

"We have agreed together that I leave the post of the Ministry of Public Health so that the peace that is needed to face this challenge can really be generated," Mazzoleni said in statements to state television.

President of Paraguay Mario Abdo Benítez.
IMAGE SOURCE, EPA
Caption,
Abdo Benítez announced the changes "for the sake of pacification."

The president assured that the priority of the new head of Health is "to make all possible efforts to guarantee the po[CENSORED]tion the provision of medicines and supplies in a timely manner."

Medical personnel denounce that hospitals have run out of drugs to treat covid-19 patients, while cases rebound.

Furthermore, so far, only four thousand people have been vaccinated in Paraguay, a country of seven million.

"Violence is never the way"
As the Interior Minister, Arnaldo Giuzzio, did the day before, the president considered that Friday's demonstration was "clouded" "because of a few."

"Violence is never the way, I express all my condemnation," he pointed out.

A protester in Paraguay.
IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS
Caption,

The clashes occurred at night.

"It is a pity that the young people have exceeded themselves and destroyed what was a civic party," the head of the Interior, Arnaldo Giuzzio, had told the Telefuturo news channel on Friday.

The citizen demonstration began peacefully in the afternoon and was joined by a large number of young people, with national flags and protest banners in front of the Congress.

Protests in Paraguay against the management of the pandemic.
IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS
The demonstration began peacefully and was joined by many young people.

The protest came days after the demonstrations of teachers and medical personnel that this week came out against the government.

While the teachers were against the return to classes in the middle of the escalation of infections, the health workers complained about the lack of medicines in hospitals.

A woman with a sign that says: "We don't want to lose any more colleagues", in Paraguay.
IMAGE SOURCE, AFP
Caption,
Nurses clamored for the lives of medical professionals.

On Friday, the main claim of the protesters was repeated on numerous banners: the resignation of the president for his management of the pandemic.

"Out Marito!" Could be read on various posters, in reference to the name by which the president is po[CENSORED]rly known.

Protest in Paraguay against the management of the pandemic
IMAGE SOURCE, REUTERS

http://cdn.paraguay.com/photos/images/000/101/669/regular_cartes_presidente2.jpg.jpg?1376575119
"Out Marito!" Could be read on various banners.

Protest by medical personnel against the management of the pandemic in Paraguay.
IMAGE SOURCE, GETTY IMAGES
Caption,
This week, medical personnel staged protests like the one seen in the image. Criticism of corruption was also a constant in the demonstrations.