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to join COVAX means the program may
lack the necessary funds to meet its goal
of 2 billion doses to distribute worldwide
by the end of 2021.
China also declined to join COVAX,
though it is instead using vaccines to
build bridges where it feels most valu-
able. In September, São Paulo Governor
João Doria said Brazil’s federal govern-
ment had also agreed to buy 60 million
doses of CoronaVac, later telling reporters
it “is the safest, the one with the best and
most promising rates.” On Jan. 6, Peru’s
President Francisco Sagasti announced
the purchase of 38 million vaccine
doses from state-run Chinese firm Sino-
pharm. Mexico has signed an advance-
purchase agreement with another Chi-
nese developer, CanSino Biologics, for
35 million doses of a single-dose immu-
nization under development. Admiral
Craig S. Faller, who leads the U.S. mili-
tary’s Southern Command, told a video
meeting with members of the Defense
Writers Group in December that China
is actively making “deals to try to get the
vaccine deployed and employed” around
the globe, while Washington’s Operation
Warp Speed is “looking at taking care of
the U.S. first.”
Given delays and doubts regarding
COVAX supply, Paraguay in January ap-
proved Russia’s Sputnik V vaccine for
emergency use, despite questions over
the rigor of testing, and it is currently in
negotiation with two unnamed pharma-
ceutical firms about buying supplies di-
rectly. Whether or not a Chinese vaccine
makes it into Paraguay will intensify ar-
guments about the merits and pitfalls of
politically sidelining Beijing, not least as
China starts rewarding its closest allies.
On Jan. 21, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister re-
vealed that China has agreed to provide
his nation with half a million doses ofSinopharm’s vaccine free of charge, with
further supplies promised.
That generosity won’t go ignored in
Latin America as the human and eco-
nomic toll from the pandemic mounts.
In January, Sixto Pereira, an opposition
Senator in Paraguay who earlier coordi-
nated the Chinese donation of PPE, ac-
cused the country’s government in local
media of bowing to U.S. pressure in reject-
ing offers of vaccine support from China.
“We must overcome political and ideo-
logical barriers if we’re going to fight the
evil of the pandemic,” he says. It may be
a simple reading of geopolitics, but it’s
a frustration that many in Latin Amer-
ica are feeling as the region navigates
not only its path out of COVID-19, but
also its road to future trade and develop-
ment in the emerging world order. “The
Berlin Wall fell, the Cold War finished,”
Pereira says. “In this globalized world, we
don’t want to be any country’s backyard.”
—With reporting by Madeline Roache/
london •▲
A grocery near a satellite-
tracking station China opened
in Argentina in 2018