LatinNews Regional Monitor: Brazil & Southern Cone - 21 April 2020

* Brazil’s Economy Minister Paulo Guedes has said that the preservation of the country’s economic activity does not equate to the end of isolation measures aimed at containing the spread of coronavirus (Covid-19). Speaking on a videoconference organised by investment bank BTG Pactual (which he co-founded), Guedes defended a planned re-opening of economic activity. “Sustaining the economy’s vital signs does not mean coming out of isolation now”, Guedes said, highlighting employment benefits and aid to the most vulnerable parts of the population as measures helping to maintain these “vital signs”. President Jair Bolsonaro frequently demands the immediate end of isolation measures imposed by state governors. One of Bolsonaro’s principal opponents on this is João Doria, the governor of São Paulo state, who is due to present this week a strategy for the gradual re-opening of the state’s economy from 11 May – over 35% of the country’s coronavirus cases are concentrated in São Paulo, which is currently under full lockdown.

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