Reporting from Latin America: 'Coronavirus has proved an intensely political story'

The Guardian's Latin America correspondent reflects on the humanitarian disaster that has gripped the region in recent months

When I set off from Mexico City for Rio with my family in early March, for what was supposed to be a short holiday, Latin America had not recorded a single death from the coronavirus.

Security staff at Mexico's Benito Juarez airport wore face masks. A blue and red banner warned China-bound travellers to wash their hands, cover their mouths and, ominously, avoid contact with live or death animals".