A region caught between stagnation and angry street protests
Latin America is stuck in a development trap, argues Michael Reid
![A woman looks at images of the 551 doctors who died amid the COVID-19 pandemic which are displayed at the so-called "Paseo de los Heroes" outside Peru's Medical College (CMP) in Lima, on December 08, 2021. - In addition to a high number of dead doctors, Peru also has the highest death rate from the pandemic in the world, at 6,111 per million inhabitants, according to AFP, based on official figures. (Photo by Ernesto BENAVIDES / AFP) (Photo by ERNESTO BENAVIDES/AFP via Getty Images)](https://www.economist.com/cdn-cgi/image/width=1424,quality=80,format=auto/media-assets/image/20220618_SRP025.jpg)
They stare out in black and white, a double row of portraits winding the full length of the curving wall of the clifftop mansion overlooking the Pacific that is the headquarters of Peru’s medical association, and then even continue into the garden. They are “the heroes of medicine”, records a plaque: the 551 doctors who died of covid-19 in Peru from the start of the pandemic in 2019 to the end of September 2021. Even as Latin America begins to leave covid behind, this poignant memorial is a reminder of what a savage toll it has wreaked. With just 8% of the world’s population, the region has suffered 28% of the officially recorded deaths from the disease. In The Economist’s reckoning of “excess deaths” per 100,000 people (the total number above the normal mortality rate), it trails only Europe.
This article appeared in the Special report section of the print edition under the headline “A grim period”