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On Monday, Brazil intervened to host the next Copa America football tournament, despite suffering one of the worst coronavirus crises in the world and facing a third wave of the disease.
The announcement came after former co-hosts from Argentina and Colombia withdrew. Buenos Aires cited a growing number of Buenos Aires Cases of covid-19 and Bogota pointed out the protests taking Colombia.
The competition, which was already postponed once last year, will begin in the coming weeks.
“The world’s oldest national team tournament will make the whole continent vibrate,” tweeted Conmebol, the South American football federation, which thanked Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for his “immediate support” for the competition.
Latin America and the Caribbean has been one of the regions most affected in the world by Covid-19, with more than a million people succumbing to the disease and tens of millions more affected by the economic consequences. The region accounts for 30% of all global pandemic deaths.
In Brazil alone, more than 460,000 citizens have died, the second highest in the world in absolute numbers after the US. In per capita figures, the nation ranks eighth.
Brazil’s decision to host the tournament provoked ridicule and contempt from experts and politicians, and many suggest it will worsen the spread of the coronavirus and compare it to the upcoming Tokyo Olympics which is causing consternation in Japan.
“Is Bolsonaro serious? In the midst of the pandemic, the arrival of the third wave, the risk of lack of beds and supplies and slow vaccines? Incredible, “said Gleisi Hoffmann, chairman of the opposition Labor Party.
Paulo Câmara, the governor of the northeastern state of Pernambuco, said the state would not allow any games to be held there.
Despite enduring a brutal second wave a few months ago, scientists and doctors in the largest country in Latin America have already sounded the alarm for a possible further rise after a decline in the event that the number stopped . The seven-day average of new daily cases again exceeded 61,000 on Sunday, up from 56,000 a month ago.
Neighboring Argentina, meanwhile, is in the middle of the second wave.
“With so many cases, we could not continue with the organization of a championship like this,” said Santiago Cafiero, chief of staff of the Argentine government. “We had promised to organize it. We tried to keep our promise, but the epidemiological reality prevented us from doing so.”
According to a poll by Poliarquia, 70% of Argentines are against holding the tournament in the country
In Colombia, President Iván Duque asked Conmebol to postpone the tournament until November due to continued protests against his government. Some of the matches were to be played in the city of Cali, which has become the epicenter of the protests.
Conmebol refused and said he would look for an alternative place.
The organization of the Copa America is usually decided in alphabetical order, although there have been many changes in the format of the tournament in its 105-year history. The tournament was last organized – and won – by Brazil in 2019.
Additional reports by Carolina Pulice
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