The coronavirus outbreak in Ecuador is boosting pressure on President Lenin Moreno to default on $17 billion in debt and devote more resources toward fighting a pandemic that has left bodies in the streets of the nation’s largest city.
The coronavirus outbreak, among Latin America’s worst, has overwhelmed health and funeral services in the southern city of Guayaquil, where authorities have built emergency cemeteries and families had to store relatives’ bodies at home for days because of delays in collection.
For Moreno – a former ally of Ecuador’s former leftist leader Rafael Correa who has tacked to the center since taking office in 2017 – boosting funds to fight the virus could conflict with efforts to pay creditors and implement austerity measures to balance a gaping fiscal deficit.
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