Guatemala Makes COVID-19 the Responsibility of the People

Abstract

It’s a muggy August evening and a thundershower is forming over the hilly treescape that frames Guatemala City’s urban center. I am rushing home from the supermarket, hoping to beat the storm. I’ve lived in Guatemala since 2018, though, recently, going to the supermarket is the only time I leave my apartment, as COVID-19 cases rise across the country. Driving through the city, neon-lit signs flicker on for restaurants and cafes that had, at one point, been under nationally mandated closure. At a stop light, I get a clear view into a well-known restaurant that had been one of my favorites, pre-COVID. Several clusters of people are seated inside a closed indoor space. None of them are wearing masks- a dramatic shift in the panorama from just months ago.