Argentine Province with 18,000 People Cut Off; Chronic Shortages of Water and Food

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – For almost a year now, the province of Formosa, one of the poorest in Argentina, has been completely isolated from the rest of the country. Only residents are allowed access to the area, and even then, only after complying with long and draconian health measures enforced by the local government to fight the coronavirus.

Images of crowded gyms, no isolation of infected people, crowded camps at the borders and people crying out for help from inside hotel rooms have shocked Argentines.

In addition to demanding a negative test result to enter the country, the government requires quarantines in locations assigned by authorities that exceed 20 days – longer than the World Health Organization recommendation.

There are currently 18,800 residents held in gyms, schools and hotels, suffering from a shortage of water, food and access to hygiene and without medical follow-up.

The premises, locked and monitored by the police, are crowded, which hinders social distancing measures.

Covid-19 diagnostic tests take days to be performed and the results are delivered only verbally, with no written reports. This is also how, in the absence of official documents, the authorities notify people of how many days they must remain on the site – there are reports of residents who have been quarantined for over a month.

On the province’s borders, there are more than 7,500 residents camped precariously, some trying to return home since March.

Many of them possess the required documents and yet are unable to enter the territory. Others have no money to pay for the PCR test. Consequently, they end up staying in the camps, where food and water are also lacking – human rights organizations have been distributing donations to these sites.

Accusations of human rights violations have been mounting, and Amnesty International released a statement claiming that the Formosa government’s health measures overstep the rule of law and violate human rights. The organization calls for the national government to intervene.

On October 11th, Mauro Rubén Ledesma, 23, was found dead by a fisherman on the Bermejo River on the border between Formosa and neighboring Chaco. The young man had asked for special permission to return home, where his 2-year-old daughter and his wife were, but it was refused. For months he waited for an opportunity to cross the border, until he despaired and tried to illegally swim into the province.

Early this month, Zunilda Gómez, pregnant, her husband and her three children were taken from their home in the city of Clorinda and brought by the police to a health isolation center.

They took the test, and the result was negative. Nevertheless, they were isolated for over ten days in a room without water or sanitation and with few visits from a doctor. Zunilda lost her baby.

The two accounts are part of a series of testimonies collected by attorneys and local politicians who intend to take the case to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.

The Catholic Church has also expressed its rejection of the methods used in Formosa. Foreign journalists or from other provinces in Argentina are not allowed into the region, despite the transit permits issued by the national government, which, in theory, are applicable to the whole country.

Last week, city councilor and attorney Gabriela Neme was arrested while visiting several isolation centers calling for the release of people who had been there for over a month with negative tests or with no symptoms of the disease – in this case, to comply with quarantine at home.

“The environment is so unhealthy for everyone that it is leading to infections of people who did not have the virus,” she said.

She was arrested in front of TV cameras and released hours later, but will stand trial. “I have bruises and injuries already documented, I will also file a suit against the government,” she said.

According to Senator Luis Naidenoff, what is being done in Formosa is a power display that has nothing to do with health. “It is an abuse of authority. We have several examples of other quarantine measures, in Argentina and in other countries, where it is possible to comply with the protocols, prevent crowds, maintain social distancing and hygiene without causing this suffering or human rights abuses,” he said.

Formosa has been governed by Gildo Insfrán, a member of the Justicialista Party (the Peronist bloc), since 1995, who runs the province like a caudillo – regional legislation allows for indefinite reelection.

According to official data, 41.6% of Formosa’s 630,000 inhabitants lived below the poverty line in 2019, the second worst result in the whole country and above the national average of 35.4%. In the HDI (Human Development Index), the region is placed last in the Argentinean ranking.

Over 80% of the population has jobs linked to government and there is virtually no opposition. Despite accusations of being linked to smuggling (the province borders Paraguay) and of misappropriation of federal funds, Insfrán is shielded by Peronism -a political movement that has among its main members President Alberto Fernández and his vice-president, Cristina Kirchner.

Naidenoff, who belongs to the opposition party Unión Cívica Radical, says that “Insfrán relies on one of the oldest practices of power in Latin America, clientelism and fear. Nobody stands up against him because here there is no rule of law. The province’s justice is in his hands, citizens have no protection, no courts to turn to and fear his power.”

In reaction to criticism of measures to try to contain the coronavirus, Insfrán says that “our goal is to save lives” and mentions ten deaths from the disease – the figure, about which there are doubts due to lack of evidence, is the lowest in the country. “Do you think it’s pleasant for us to take these measures? Of course it isn’t.”

Insfrán says that attacks against him due to health measures are “political persecution because this is an election year,” he said, referring to the October legislative elections.