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Waiting in line for a vaccine in Caracas. (AP)

Vacu-nada. Venezuela has one of Latin America's lowest Covid vaccination rates, not to mention a rollout plan marked by cronyism and chaos. Read how the lack of transparency surrounding the pandemic response is fueling the country’s public health woes.

Review vaccination rates across Latin America in our tracker.

Corruption disruption. The pandemic has distracted from anti-graft battles, but some countries were already seeing backsliding when the coronavirus hit. “Sometimes the successes of anti-corruption efforts end up feeding their demise because they anger the powers that be,” explains AS/COA Vice President Brian Winter in a new episode of Latin America in Focus.

Learn more in the 2021 Capacity to Combat Corruption Index.

THEY SAID WHAT?

—Ned Price, U.S. State Department spokesperson, on Peru’s June 6 runoff despite candidate Keiko Fujimori continuing to claim that there was voter fraud

DON'T MISS THIS

After eight years as the Western Hemisphere head for the International Monetary Fund, Alejandro Werner is stepping down. In an interview with the Financial Times, Werner says regional unrest underscores the need to tackle inequality, and increasing taxes on the wealthy is a way to get there.

Election official's resignation keeps Peru in constitutional limbo.
Chile's decades-old mining deals may hinder bid to lift copper royalties.
Argentina averts default in debt deal with Paris Club.
Brazilian Environment Minister Ricardo Salles steps down amid illegal logging probe.

COVID-19 IN LATIN AMERICA

What comes first: the company or the 35 million dose vaccine contract? For Swiss-based Latam Pharma, it's the latter. Read the Univision investigation that revealed Mexico inked a CanSino deal with a ghost firm that legally did not exist until after the deal was inked and is led by a lawyer embroiled in the Panama Papers scandal.

Brazilians protest Bolsonaro's pandemic response as country’s death toll exceeds 500,000.
Mexico announces AstraZeneca donations to five Central American and Caribbean countries.
Chile, where China’s Sinovac dominates rollout, weighs third booster dose.

FAST STAT

25%
South America's portion of the global death coronavirus death toll, despite having only 5 percent of the world’s population. The region, facing another round of contagion, has a death rate that is eight times the global average, per The Wall Street Journal.

ICYMI from Americas Quarterly: A socially conservative left is gaining traction in Latin America. In Nicaragua, chronicle of a death foretold. The shadowy figure behind Peru’s likely next president.

ALGO FUNNY

Our email is named after the mountain-running messengers of the Inca Empire.

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