By Laura Kemp • Published: 21 May 2020 • 12:49
THE mayor of a town called Tantara in southern Peru, Jamie Rolando Urbina Torres, was pictured flouting lockdown and pretending to be dead lying in an open casket with his face mask on.
Police could not believe their eyes when they saw the lengths the mayor had gone to in order to violate social distancing laws and get drunk with his friends.
This is not the only time Torres has come under scrutiny in relation to the coronavirus crisis, as locals have previously accused the mayor of not taking the threat of the pandemic seriously enough and failing to implement the necessary measures in the town.
The whole of Peru has been placed on lockdown by the central government and is already on day 66 of quarantine, however, locals argue that since the lockdown began the mayor has spent eight days in the town and failed to adopt any local safety precautions.
This has been an ongoing battle with Urbina Torres who even had to go to the town meeting and personally defend his actions against a mob of angry locals.
The local media in Peru reports that even his own officials would repeatedly shoot him down when all he could offer was excuses for not opening coronavirus quarantine shelters. There are also accusations that the mayor has done nothing to prevent outsiders from entering the town during lockdown.
The American region in general finds itself in a dire state due to the coronavirus crisis, as the rate of cases and total number of deaths has been rising quicker than in any other area of the world.
Currently the region has a total of 2.1 million cases, 200,000 more than the previous epicentre of the pandemic, Europe which has 1.9 million cases of the coronavirus.
Although Europe still has the highest number of total deaths, the Americas region is quickly approaching the same number and at an even faster rate.
Peru is amongst one of the four worst countries suffering from this virus and has a total of 104,020 cases and 3,024 deaths. Brazil and Mexico also have some of the worst evolutions of the pandemic.
Worldwide there are currently more than five million cases of the virus confirmed and on Wednesday the World Health Organisation recorded the single-largest daily increase of the pandemic which was 106,000 new cases.
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Originally from UK, Laura is based in Axarquia and is a writer for the Euro Weekly News covering news and features. Got a news story you want to share? Then get in touch at editorial@euroweeklynews.com.
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