Latin American cities and the coronavirus

Abstract

The coronavirus pandemic arrived at Latin America in 2020, brought by middle- and upper-class travelers from Asia, Europe and the United States. It expanded throughout the big cities and passed to the popular sectors. The deep economic-social crisis derived from the quarantine imposed on the population to prevent the spread of the virus has shown, once again, the contradictions, problems and conflicts that afflict the popular sectors in our neoliberal capitalist cities, reconstructed in the manner of transnational financial real estate capital and of state polices that promote and facilitate its actions. Now and in the post-pandemic period, it is necessary to claim the right to the city transformed into a new society, just like Henri Lefebvre proposed half a century ago.