Ecuador, Brazil and other South American countries had their covid responses sabotaged by Donald Trump and Jair Bolsonaro, according to a blockbuster exposé just published in the New York Times.
The exposé is titled How Trump and Bolsonaro Broke Latin America's Covid-19 Defenses.
www.nytimes.com:
The presidents of the USA and Brazil forced out 10,000 Cuban doctors from Ecuador, Brazil and other South American countries. This undermined South America's ability to confront the pandemic.
Trump and Bolsonaro supported enormous spending cuts that defunded the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO), which had been uniquely positioned to deal with a pandemic in South America. The defunding almost bankrupted PAHO to an extent not reported before the Times investigation.
Trump and Bolsonaro met at Mar-a-Lago in March 2020 where Bolsonaro sought to burnish his reputation as the Trump of the Tropics. Even before the pandemic, Trump and Bolsonaro had cemented an ideology-based partnership that would undermine South America's response to a pandemic.
Upon their return to Brazil, 22 in the Bolsonaro party tested positive with covid. Trump later tested positive. Both presidents have apparently recovered from covid.