The Economist - USA (2021-07-10)

32 The Americas The Economist July 10th 2021

der  Mr  Moïsethesituation grewworse.

Critics  accusedhim ofusinggangs toa

greater extenttodohisbidding,whilehav­

ing far lesscontroloverthem,thanprevi­

ous presidents.Inrecentweeksfightingin

Port­au­Princehasintensified;thousands

of  people  hadtofleetheirhomesinJune

alone.  By  someestimates,kidnappingsin

Haiti tripledlastyearcomparedwith2019.

AlthoughMrMoïsehasbeenthefocus

of  much  discontent,hisdeathisunlikely

to simplifythings.“Hewasa complicated

and  flawedperson, but thepeople who

made  himthesinglefocusofallthatis

wrong in thesystemofHaitimissthelarg­

er  failuresofthatsystem,”saysMichael

Deibert, an AmericanexpertonHaiti.

Mr  Joseph has little legitimacy. Mr

Moïse  had  nominatedArielHenry,a doc­

tor,aspermanentprimeminister;hewas

duetotakeofficeonthedayoftheassassi­

nation.Theconstitutiondoesnotprovide

forthelackofbotha presidentanda Na­

tionalAssembly,andthechiefjusticeof

theSupremeCourt,who couldarbitrate,

diedtwoweeksagoofcovid­19. Thekilling

couldalsomakeithardertoholdelections

fora newpresidentandlegislature,which

aredueinSeptember.

InmanywaysHaitialreadylookslikea

failedstate.Menwithgunshavelongter­

roriseditspeople.OnlylastmonthJimmy

Chérisier,aliasBarbecue,a formerpolice­

manandleaderofanallianceofgangs,an­

nounceda “revolution”againstthestatus

quo(thoughmanythinkhemeanttheop­

position).Thepoliceareweakerthanthe

gangs,whomaynowfeeltheyhavea free

hand.Nowthatlawlessnesshasreached

thecountry’shighestoffice,manyHaitians

feartheworst.n

Colombia

Blocking the

schoolhouse door

L

earning hasalways  been  difficult  for

Samuel Duván Rodríguez, a seven­year­

old  with  a  neuro­developmental  disorder.

It has become tougher still since his school

in  Bogotá,  Colombia’s  capital,  closed  be­

cause of covid­19. His mother says he uses

her phone to log in to his teacher’s lessons.

But he seems to take in little. It doesn’t help

that he has to share the device with his ten­

year­old  brother.  Lately,  however,  neither

child is learning anything at all, as all their

teachers have been on strike.

If all goes to plan, schools in Colombia

will  finally  reopen  over  the  next  two

weeks, with most back by July 15th. Better

late than never. Schools in Mexico and Bra­

zil  have  already  started  to  resume  in­per­

son  teaching.  By  contrast,  in  Colombia

children  have  borne  one  of  the  longest

educational lockdowns in Latin America. 

Mostly this is due to Fecode, the power­

ful state school teachers’ union. It is part of

the  national  strike  committee  that  con­

vened  the  anti­government  protests  that

have convulsed Colombia since April 28th.

As thousands took to the streets, its mem­

bers refused to teach for at least 50 days. On

July 8th, as The Economistwent to press, it

was planning another march in the capital

against reopening schools. 

The union is one of the most powerful

in  Latin  America,  a  region  already  full  of

over­mighty  unions.  Fully  87%  of  Colom­

bia’s public­school teachers signed up to it.

It  has  a  history  of  throwing  its  weight

around. In 2015 it went on strike to oppose

a proposal to use more stringent measures

to evaluate teachers; after three weeks, the

government caved in. Since then the union

has  felt  emboldened,  says  Isabel  Segovia,

an education analyst. 

The pandemic has further strengthened

it.  Fecode  teachers  initially  refused  to

teach because they believed it put them at

risk of catching the virus, with some good

reason.  Around  11%  of  Colombia's  schools

lack running water, making hand­washing

impossible. Even so much of the reason for

the strike is political: the union wants a ba­

sic income programme that would cost 6%

of gdpand to help elect a left­wing govern­

ment in next year’s elections.

Nelson Alarcón, a union leader, says all

teachers  should  be  vaccinated  before  Fe­

code agrees to resume classes. Ideally, chil­

dren  should  be  vaccinated,  too.  All  teach­

ers should stop working, he says, until the

government  adapts  every  school  with  wa­

B OGOTÁ

A powerful teaching union tries to

keep pupils at home

Urbanmalaise

Quitting the city

Q

uitohasalotgoingforit.Stretched

along  a  breathtakingly  high  Andean

valley  beneath  snow­capped  volcanoes,

Ecuador’s  capital  is  packed  with  historic

buildings  and  enticing  eateries.  But  it  is

woefully governed. In June the city council

impeached  Jorge  Yunda,  the  mayor;  he  is

charged  with  failing  to  hold  city  council

meetings that would have solved an under­

ground­railway crisis. He is also under in­

vestigation by the attorney­general’s office

on  suspicion  of  embezzlement  related  to

the purchase of faulty covid­19 tests (he de­

nies both the embezzlement and the faulty

tests).  On  July  1st  the  impeachment  pro­

ceedings were affirmedby  the  electoral

court.  Mr  Yunda  now  wears  an  electronic

tag so that the authorities can monitor his

movements.

The  mayor  is  not  the  only  problem.  A

shiny  underground  railway  costing  $2bn

has yet to be finished after five years of dig­

ging. Buses careen through the streets with

little  regard  for  road  rules.  Crime  is  rife:

two  policemen  were  shot  in  their  car  in

June and a prominent criminal lawyer was

gunned down in April. The 500­year old ci­

ty  “needs  to  be  reinvented”,  says  Gonzalo

Ortiz, a former city councillor. 

Quiteños  tend  to  point  to  2007  as  the

turning  point  in  the  city’s  fortunes,  when

Rafael  Correa,  a  populist,  became  presi­

dent.  His  government  pushed  through  a

new constitution that called city adminis­

trations  “autonomous  decentralised  gov­

ernments”,  but  in  practice  weakened  the

authority of mayors. Even so the mayor of

Quito at the time, Augusto Barrera, was an

ally; he also stripped the vast metropolitan

region’s districts of their power.

The  new  model  failed  to  deliver  the

promised  benefits.  A  new  airport  took

three  more  years  to  complete  than

planned;  Mr  Barrera’s  administration

failed to build a proper access road to it (it

was finally completed, five times over bud­

get, by his successor). A project to clean up

the  main  river  in  the  city  was  never  com­

pleted; it remains a sewer. Mr Barrera start­

ed the railway project but only oversaw the

building of two stations and did not bother

to work out who would run it. 

In  2019  Mr  Yunda  won  office  with  just

21% of the vote. His weak mandate has not

helped matters, but he argues that now he

is being targeted by a racist elite (he is of in­

digenous  heritage).  Whatever  the  cause,

his  shoddy  management  of  the  capital

means that many are abandoning it for the

wealthier  suburbs,  whicharenow  think­

ing of seceding. Mr Yunda’slegacy may be

an emptier, poorer Quito.n

Q UITO

Ecuadorians are fed up with the capital

Pretty but dysfunctional