they continue to be among the most reactionary in latin america they're not the only ones but central america and some among the caribbean the poorest countries are among the worst so i think i wish i could say this is about engagement and if the us puts together a program of 10 or $15000000000.00 we can start addressing the root causes. i wish i could say that's good and that's tension the net necessary and sufficient it's necessary it's nowhere sufficient because what you have it's much more often than not great leakage leakage meaning whatever foreign aid comes in whatever investment comes in is going to be monopolized by these mammary theme crossed right of a leech family you don't have states which strong redistributive capacity you don't have infrastructure public goods right that kind of allow people to connect with one another to find jobs that to try to better themselves through education all of that is very very very weak yes a us cannot just just just put it right and created on that sober note francisco gonzales associate professor of latin american politics at the johns h

brazil battles a 2nd wave of corona virus infections as a variant 1st detected that spread across latin america health authorities are scrambling for more vaccine. alexina valmy appears in public for the 1st time since the russian opposition leader and his. long hunger strike. i'm phil gal welcome to the program. u.s. president joe biden plans for what he called a once in a generation investment in america his 1st speech to congress as president he outlined proposals to a vast massively in infrastructure and said the country must reassert its place in the world by sharing advice democracy still works. joe biden spent decades in the u.s. congress as a senator. he was back with an ambitious program that could see him becoming a transformational u.s. president. would be back. he began by drawing attention to the historic fact that for the 1st time ever the 2 people behind him where women madam speaker madam vice president i. was with. has never said those words from this podium no president ever said those words. then a grim summary of his 1st 100 days combined with a note of optimism 100 days sin

latin america is home to just 8 percent of the world's population but has suffered nearly a 3rd of all covered 19 deaths brazil the worst affected me 400000 people that have died president has consistently played down the effects of the virus but he's now trying to get more vaccines from broad. the streets so once again filling up in sao paolo and other cities after 4 weeks of local restrictions that have seen the number of new infections fall slightly but the statistics are devastating. april has been the deadliest month in brazil to date many experts say insufficient locked down restrictions make the country a breeding ground for virus mutations that then spread to other countries the p one variant that 1st emerged in january in a city of menow says has triggered an explosion of infections and deaths with hospitals often running out of beds and oxygen the poor are being disproportionately affected around 12000000 brazilians live in 5 ella's in extremely crowded conditions malnutrition is also a problem especially as government aid has been cut and unemployment has risen during the pa

latin america has been the region worst affected by the pandemic. how concerned are you about a new debt crisis, do you think this could lead to new lost decade in the region? david: -- mr. malpass: gdp declined sharply in 2020 and will recover some, at least numerically in 2021. but it won't be able to get back to previous levels. i'm very concerned about the student situation in latin america and the caribbean. one thing that is helping as the access to vaccines. i'm hoping deliveries can begin by intermediary organizations. part of this is getting the contracts in place. the world bank is providing financing for several countries and there can be large-scale programs. but the countries are working to arrange delivery schedules from the various vaccine providers. death important part -- that is an important part of the country. and helping latin america and the caribbean will help recovery in the u.s.. that helps with the creation of market in latin america with a lot of capability of manufactured goods. in terms of the services that are available

what should he do in latin america?tter way in relati to cuba. even with venezuela they had indirect dialogues and certainly - asking f a diogue with the organization of south american countries. i think respect, i think what the united states -- there is diversy in latin america. and plurality. and, of course, desire to work independently and to work in cooperation with the united states. he should cnge the chairman of the inter-american -- inter-development bank. someone o is a hawk. put there by trump. i don't know for what. extreme right wing. we have never had. more important than being in latin america or being a u.s. citizen is the question of understanding latin america, not -- making latin america stage for a new cold war we do not want to be in. >> finally, your comment on the u.s. and other wealthy members of the wto blocking a push by developing countries to waive patent rights in an effort to boost the ability get vaccines out to the world. >> well, i was very much involved in a some 15 years ago. at was a

guess my question is given the legacy of american foreign policy in the region that has not put latin americast and foremost, and you have talked about root causes, how do we square that and bring it around, given we have really never been that good at latin american foreign policy? >> very good point. in foreign policy circles, amongst scholars of international relations, international politics, one says latin america is traditionally perceived as the backyard of the united states. that is not the only reason why the u.s. considers it secondary importance. the key issue is, we do not have nukes. if any of the countries in the region had nukes, our status and policymaking circles in washington would go up. i do not know if i would subscribe to counseling any leaders to start developing nukes, but your point is well taken. latin america is and has been an area where the u.s. tends to enact policies in a reactive way. it tends to react to developments in the region, and this is a region which you start with is categorized by incredible socioeconomic inequality. the case of central america in pa

so the whole world outside the us latin america was like the entire region you sold the film project to all of latin america in one deal and set of say like you don't sell it to all of europe you sell it to france germany spain you know all the countries so. that's the tiniest market of the malek it's a puny markets hardly any money so how anybody thought there is anything in hollywood that could make $690000000.00 and latin america but you also need like huge debts like that's that's why our company ended up like after 1520 years gone bankrupt because you get a lot of money upfront they keep on having to service the film for years and years and years with promotional materials that recording box office like chasing. various distributors for the money that they're owed and blah blah blah so it's a huge amount of cost so like the people who got defrauded from this were not individual like ordinary investors they were hedge funds and something that you would think would do due diligence right now in this environment the more. a fraudulent something sounds the easier it is to sell and t

there is a similar picture across much of latin america more than 25000000 people have been infected and 800000 have died the list of 4000000 vaccine doses of arrived in colombia half a 1000000 each and believe you're in ecuador in just 250000 in venezuela where health workers have been protesting but. our fight is to call for vaccines needed the government nor the president have pity for the people let the vaccines in give us protective equipment and hospitals so that there are no more deaths in the world health organization says that for the vaccines to be effective at least 70 percent of the population must be covered. one of the few success stories in the region is chile where more than half the population has received at least one dose meanwhile the rest of latin america in jaws yet more lock down measures and continues to wait for the vaccines to arrive. and there are 01 osiris . officials from saudi arabia and iran have held diplomatic talks this month in an effort to ease tensions the cut ties 5 years ago after saudi arabia's execution of a shia cleric which spawned violence

the possible exception of chile which has vaccinated more than half its population the rest of latin america is struggling to get those vaccines in many are waiting for the kovacs scheme to kick in that will help poorer poor nations around the world to receive the vaccines but they are coming in dribs and drabs and as you mentioned haiti not at all 11000000 people there the official figures are the only 250 people have died about 12000 infected most observers observe suspect those figures are much much higher it's a country embroiled at the moment in political and criminal violence many problems their infrastructure health industry infrastructure which is always been very poor off so a serious situation there was so accusations of corruption money being sent to the country is not accounted for. it's a serious situation unlikely to receive any vaccinations there at least probably until the end of may see yes a grim picture really right across latin america 0. reporting live from one of our as dale many thanks. chinese regulators find the alibaba group nearly $3000000000.00 for violating anti

the coronavirus fund demick 9 the number of call 1000 infections in latin america has passed 25000000 brazil is the hardest hit country in the region with the world's 2nd highest number of cases behind the us a widespread spike in infections has prompted both chile and believe year to close their borders ecuador and peru have also imposed new measures over the easter holidays to limit travel and public gatherings let's go live to alison that i'm kitty who is in colombia forus he's monitoring developments in south america so it seems that more and more countries are closing their borders in south america. brazil the epicenter of the pandemic really there just how dire is the situation in brazil. well follies hospitals across brazil literally been crippled by the current surge in infections just to give you an idea of how bad the situation is in the month of march just and did more than $66000.00 people have died kovi the 19 and brazil that's the deadliest month since the beginning of the pandemic and more than double the number of the previous record the situation is so bad that more t

despite safety concerns from european regulators the consensus from health experts in latin america is that the benefits outweigh the risks so this isn't time usual so this is not what regulates. regulation suits like groups individual countries decide how best. to stop bad knowledge of the act genealogy. segments are in their own. while some countries of the world have put a hold on their use of the astra zeneca vaccine most latin american countries just seem willing to take whatever they can get and for a region that continues to face the darkest days of the pandemic it may be that suspending the use of the astra zeneca bank scene is a luxury latin americans simply cannot afford. al-jazeera mexico city. australia's government will purchase another 20000000 doses of the pfizer biotech taxing us because it now wants people under the age of 50 to get the fire as a jap instead of the astra zeneca one the government has also highlighted cases of blood clots of people who took the astra zeneca jab but this is likely to further delay the vaccination drive which has already been criticized f

so countries across latin america rushing in restrictions as they battle to contain coronavirus up breaks the problems are being compounded by slow vaccine rollouts and weak health systems but in the worst affected country that's brazil there are moves to actually eat restrictions in places that have seen a huge rise in 1000 cases and deaths daniel reports from one is. a mixture of relief and disbelief as 2 weeks of lockdown lifted in rio de janeiro one of the worst coronavirus hit cities in brazil for the gist of this war the good news is that by enforcing the 14 day epidemiological period suggested by specialists plus other restrictions we managed to lower the number of people seeking the city's basic health system. yet for the past week across brazil there have been an average of 4000 deaths a day adding to a total of more than 350002nd in the world only to the united states health experts say much more needs to be done to curb the spread and. we can't sleep because we don't know full be able to attend to the patients if we will have medicines oxygen today we have them but if these cas

still ahead on al-jazeera countries in latin america struggle to make progress with vaccination plans as coronavirus cases soar across the region. i really struggle being on my own. most of the sub will not be able to see my found me in these times as england opens up university students are demanding to know when they'll be allowed to return to class. it's time for the perfect gentleman. sponsored point qatar airways however got plenty of april showers across central and eastern parts of europe at the moment i think the heaviest are going to be over tools eastern side of the continent actually if it's warm sunshine year after but my further than scandinavia we have high pressure in charge here temps could be up to 16 celsius in oslo 14 therefore stall calm 5 day into concerns post-process scandinavia because of this prolonged spell of dry weather wetter weather will try to make its way in from the northwest having said that some what's the weather coming into odd and western process gotland on this it is a weakening weather system making its way in here what it says showers there int

the latest wave of cold it is breaking new records every day in latin america in colombia deaths are surpassing more than 420 daily. hopes his wife won't be one of them as she waits for an i.c.u. bed at this maybe you know hospital and but there's a good on them a great sense of helplessness because what can you do as a human being you can't do anything. the pan american health organization says no region has been harder hit more than 3000000 people. i'm really. happened right here in the america. back in europe why hospitals are running out of sedatives needed for using respirators in critical care units a painful reminder that in this pandemic overconfidence is a dangerous thing. in human out 0. at least 4 people being killed in a car bomb attack at a luxury hotel in pakistan the explosion ripped through the 3 hotels car park in kota the capital of baluchistan province people were injured the pakistan taliban claims it carried out the attack china's ambassador to pakistan was staying at the hotel there was no when they exploded. afghanistan is suffering one of its worst droughts in

countries in latin america struggle to make progress with vaccination plans as coronavirus cases saw across the continent. world football bosses wave the red flag and some of europe's biggest clubs announce a new super league competition. tensions between russia and the west continuing to escalate following a week of sanctions and diplomatic expulsions moscow's now ordered 20 diplomats from the czech republic to leave a day after prague told 18 russian diplomats to get out the for tat move was sparked after proudly accused russian spies of involvement in the 2014 explosion. but it smith reports from moscow. a series of explosions hit this ammunition depot 330 kilometers southeast of prague in october and december 24th seen 2 men were killed almost 7 years later the czech government says it now knows who is responsible for that cloud you know that's based on clear evidence obtained during the investigation conducted by our security services i can say there is a well grounded suspicion about the involvement of officers of the russian intelligence service in the explosions at them when

so the whole world outside the us latin america was like the entire region you sold the film project to all of latin america in one deal and set of say like you don't sell it to all of europe you sell it to france germany spain you know all the countries so. that's the tiniest market of the malek it's a puny market it's hardly any money so how anybody thought there is anything in hollywood that could make $690000000.00 and latin america but you also need like huge debts like that's that's why our company ended up like after 1520 years gone bankrupt because you get a lot of money upfront they keep on having to service the film for years and years and years with promotional materials that recording box office chasing various distributors for the money that they're owed and blah blah blah so it's a huge amount of cost so like the people who got defrauded from this were not individual like ordinary investors they were hedge funds and something that you would think would do due diligence right now in this environment the more. a fraudulent something sounds the easier it is to sell and the

invasions in latin america for more than a century. trp: we seek a peaceful transition of wer, but all options are open. nothing could be better for the future of venezuela and nothing coulbe better for the futu another ctive nation, cub trump: the dictator madu is a cuban puppet. pence: the peoplof venezuela are essentlly cuba's hostage. pompeo: cuba is the true imperialispower in venezuela. boltonif this afteoon, 20 to 25,000 cubans lt venezuel i think maduro would fall by midnight. [fernando speaking spanish] [both speaking spanish] [berriz speaking spanish] [doorbell rings] reporter: doctors and nurses from cuba touch down in milan. they're there to provide support and expertise to the hospitals in italy. [juan jesus speaking spanish] [juan jesus speaking spanish] [both speaking spanish] [muro speaking spanish] fernandez: cuba'international medical program began in 1960 when it sent a health brigade to chile in response to a deadly earthquake. since then, cuba has sent more than 400,000 medical personnel to 164 countries. for decad

latin america, latin american people, saw that united states as overbearing, they did not like them onunro doctrine. they did not like to be in america to backyard. for good foreign policy reasons, it was ruled out that we would have the u.s. military openly go against the castro regime. now, kennedy considered that when it came to the event that happened 18 months later, that was the cuban missile crisis. that is another story. host: what made u.s. officials decide to back this bay of pigs invasion? what was going on that made u.s. officials decide to consider any type of intervention in cuba at this point? nicholas: well, castro was cozying up to the soviet union. at the time, this was in the depths of the cold war tensions, tensions were high. there was an arms race and eisenhower in particular had already acted against what he thought was going to be a soviet beachhead in the western hemisphere in guatemala. he used cia in a covert action to oust the democratically elected president of guatemala, in 1950 warp. -- in 1954. as castro gets closer to the soviet union ends and accepts a

united states has a global role but when you think even about countries along the pacific rim of latin america, they may connect more to the economies of asia. i was always struck when i would go to something called the summit of the americas, which was really about latin america and the caribbean. we would have these discussions and hugo chavez would take off and everybody would sort of close their ears and whatever. but then almost a week or two weeks later, we would go to the asia pacific economic council, apec, and there it's the pacific rim countries of chile and up at the pacific rim all the way to canada and all the way out through japan and china and korea. and the conversation was completely different. it was about global trade, it was about freeing trade. so i actually always thought in that sense, the countries had more in common with their asian counterparts than they had with their latin american counterparts. >> is how they perceive themselves, at a stage of development, significant there? >> i think it is. because if you look at places like chile, now quite developed in many way

central america is a part of latin america -- as a part of latin america has done worse.ccording to the u.n. commission for latin america and the caribbean, economies have declined over 9% last year. the average for south america was a little over 7%. so you have just an unprecedented health, economic, and climate related crisis that regardless of the administration, would have produced unprecedented bush of desperate people to come to the united -- push of desperate people to come to the united states. we can all agree that the messaging that was done rapidly that the united states would undo the inhumane policies of the trump administration, separating children from their parents, ripping kids from the arms of their parents. hundreds of those children have not been reunited with their families. it was important to stop that policy. and i think candidate biden had pledged to do so. but there were a rapid number of executive actions that did send a message, perhaps too strong a message, that the united states was open for business, and abide administration moved quickly t

we have five treaties with latin america. including the one setting up the organization of america states in bogotÁ in 1948. which we've agreed, not to intervene in the internal affairs of any other american country. and they as well have agreed to do likewise. the charter of the united nations, it's preamble article one an article to. also provide that there shall be no intervention by one nation in the internal affairs of another. i do not know what's senator kennedy suggest when he says he's we should help those who oppose the castro regime. both in cuba and out. but i do know this? but if we were to follow that recommendation and lose all of our friends in latin america that we would not accomplish our objective are rejected. and i know it would be an open invitation for mr. khrushchev to come in and to come into latin america and to engage us in what would be a civil war and probably even worse than that. >> so what role did questions about castro in cuba play in the 1960 presidential campaign. >> it is such a bizarre sit

millions of people in the latin america's biggest country are struggling to put food on the table as the covert 900 out break weeks havoc on the economy. fairly or gomez starts her day early she gets up at around 4 am worried about having enough food for her 4 children to have breakfast. i wake up with the feeling of being in agony i jump out of bed in the 1st thing i do is stand guard i'm alive i look at my children and think to myself today i'll bring home some food for them i leave the house early to fetch bread there are days when i can't manage to bring them entering but they run out of the night. lives enough for valor of around 100000 people in sao paolo here and across brazil unemployment hit a record high last year this community association helps people living in marginalized areas to find work. we had an 84 percent increase in demand for employment after the government's emergency aid ended and the number of people seeking help tripled because so many people didn't have any support anymore but it was. in december government aid of around $84.00 euros a month was cut making

latin america. latin american people saw the united states as overbearing they didn't like them on road doctrine. they didn't like to be in america's backyard. they and so for for good foreign policy reasons it was ruled out that we would have the united states military openly go against the castro regime now. kennedy considered that when it came to the event that happened some 18 months later, and that was a cuban missile crisis, but that's another another story. what made us officials decide to back this bay of pigs invasion what was going on that made us official decide to consider any type of intervention in cuba at this point. well castro was definitely posing up to the soviet union. at the time this is in the depths of the of the cold war tensions are high. there's a an arms race. and eisenhower in particular had already acted against what he thought was going to be a soviet beachhead in the western hemisphere in guatemala. he used cia in a covert action to oust the democratically elected presi

latin america, latin american people saw the united states as overbearing. didn't like the monroe doctrine. they didn't like to be in america's backyard. and for good foreign policy reasons, it was ruled out that we would have the united states military openly go against the castro regime. now, kennedy considered that when it came to the event that happened some 18 months later, the cuban missile crisis, but that's another story. host: what made u.s. officials decide to back the bay of pigs invasion? what was going on that made u.s. officials decide to consider any type of intervention in cuba at this point? guest: well, castro was definitely cozying up to the soviet union. this is in the depths of the cold war. tensions are high. there is an arms race and eisenhower in particular had already acted against what he thought was going to be a soviet beachhead in the western hemisphere in guatemala. he used cia in a covert action to oust the democratically elected president of guatemala in 1954. cuba, as castro gets closer to the soviet union and is starting to

they have been very radical and reza rouser represents the new rather government left wing in latin america. represents the more traditional right wing so they have nothing in common and they have had a very difficult political campaign so we have seen this in other countries they are rather go on then when they become president they change the tone so we hope it is going to happen in a bar right now and then nothing looks like it they can do something to unite the country because they voters they are also in the same situation very radical very different one from the other. the new president whoever that may be will take over in late may what will be the main issues he'll have to tackle. first and foremost to united the country over the syrians said it because he needs not just the country the people but also the political parties here in the new president needs to find to see political alliances that are local to go burn and then the economy the recovery effort there is going through a very deep economic crisis caused by the pandemic and that is the other challenge to control the pandemic

economy but in latin america and in central america, i mean latin america is statistically the regionat has been the hardest hit in terms of covid deaths per capita and also in terms of the decline in gdp. and central america, as a part of latin america has done even worse. according to the un -- the central american economies have gone down and declined over 9% last year. the average for south america was, you know, a little over 7%. so you have tristan unprecedented health, economic and climate related crisis that regardless of the administration would have produced, you know, an unprecedented push of a desperate people to come to the united states. now, we can all agree that the messaging that was done rapidly, that the united states would undo the inhumane policies of the trump administration separating children from their parents, ripping kids from the arms of their parents, hundreds of those children have not been reunited, you know, with their families. i mean, it was important to stop that policy and i think candidate biden had pledged to do so. but there were a rapid number o

have been rising in order why and the intensive care unit capacity right now is at 75 percent latin america south america specifically is one of the hardest hit regions by the virus pandemic we have seen unemployment rise poverty rise in this past year and there's lots of difficulty and lots of challenges because many countries in this part of the world cannot afford to assist their populations over the coming months and on what's coming next. thousands of people living near a volcano on the caribbean island of st vincent have fled on boats off to an eruption a supressed bride ash across villages in the north of the island around 16000 people have been told to escape the area with experts warning of further eruptions ok now had laid dormant for more than 40 years a devastating eruption a century ago killed more than a 1000 people. look at out top stories now versions prince philip queen elizabeth's husband has died at the age of 99 he was married to the queen for 73 years and served alongside her through the length of her reign if it was praised helping.

the pandemic has hit indigenous people across latin america disproportionately hard since they often live in remote communities with limited access to adequate health facilities. you know they rely on medics like anselm but he's often met with distrust and suspicion so he can persuade to accept the vaccine. we didn't think of getting it because we used to cure ourselves of anything with plants but as this is a worldwide problem there is no other solution whoever wants to get the vaccine it's not obligatory but you will feel safer getting it. others proved to be more resistant. to barlow shares a last name but not his belief in modern medicine. that. my family and i will not get vaccinated because that is my belief because the pastor has taught us that it is not necessary by trust again god will go through this will overcome everything that comes our way including disease. colombia has recently seen an increase in coverage 1000 deaths being near total up to more than 70000 there's an even worse picture in brazil with more than 40000000 infections and 386000 deaths billions driver. see

latin america received its 1st batch of vaccines in this amber there was great fanfare it will end the coronavirus nightmare but 4 months later death and infection rates in some countries reached record levels. are reports from one osiris where many vaccination programs of barely got going. another 800000 doses of the coronavirus vaccine have arrived in argentina they're part of the world health organizations culverts program designed to ensure they reach all corners of the globe yet they are you me martha i need from today will be working to distribute this lake suspects to the different places that need it we're working as fast as possible and trying to speed up the distribution process. there led to the more than 6000000 doses already here in the country of 42000000 where infections are again reaching record levels it's not enough. it's also a long way short of the promises made by the previous health minister back in february you know more than a month with the vaccine agreement we have reached and by the actions we are taking we estimate that in august or september we will have ac