Ecuador health minister Juan Carlos Zevallos resigned Friday, becoming the third top Latin American health official forced out in a week as outrage grows over the ability of the region’s richest and most powerful to obtain vaccinations before the rest of the population.
President Lenin Moreno, whose term ends May 24, posted the minister’s resignation letter on Twitter. Zevallos’ departure was quickened after he sent letters to university presidents inviting them to skip the line, and after prosecutors launched an investigation into his mother’s vaccination in January.
In the past seven days, Argentina’s health minister resigned, as did both the Peruvian health minister and his deputy. In both countries, the revelation of VIP vaccinations sent the governments’ cabinets into disarray, as the number of insiders who were vaccinated in secret ballooned to 70 in Argentina, and nearly 500 in Peru.
In Ecuador, the scandal is primed to do the same.
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