CO2 The Structural Conditions for the Expansion of COVID-19 in Peru

Abstract

Peru is one of the most affected and infected countries by COVID-19. The expansion of the virus could not be contained by lockdowns and states of emergency. The re-opening of the economy increased the expansion of COVID-19. We argue that the role of Peru in the international division of labor is not only the structural condition for the persistence of labor precariousness in the country, but also the principal cause for the expansion of COVID-19 in Peru. Labor precariousness and the expansion of COVID-19 are the expressions of the country’s economic and business structure. An economic structure heavily dependent on the non-tradable sectors and a business structure dominated by micro business undertakings, characterized by low productivity levels, do not permit the eradication of precarious labor conditions as economic growth hinges on economic progress abroad and precariousness is the source of profit of micro companies. The persistence of labor precariousness impedes the containment of COVID-19. Labor precariousness expressed in wages at the subsistence level and the lack of labor stability in the formal sector, in combination with the structural character of informality have been the catalysts for the expansion of the virus. We demonstrate that COVID-19 is not a democratic virus but a class virus. For Metropolitan Lima, districts with a more than average rate of informality have also a more than average rate of COVID-19 infections. The neoliberal development model has been responsible for the incapacity of the government to implement measures in accordance with the country’s social and economic structure that might have contained the expansion of COVID-19. This model is the expression of Peru’s function in the globalized world, the relation between this role and the country’s economic and business structure, the functionality of the extractive development model for the Peruvian State, and the correlation of class forces within and outside the state apparatuses. Keywords: Peru, COVID-19, labor precariousness, international division of labor, neoliberal development model