Interactions of Brazil, Peru, PAHO and ACTO in overcoming the effects of COVID-19

The Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) has a long history of helping to tackle health issues and combat the spread of infectious diseases. However, the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic was too sudden and too impactful to be curbed through top-down action by the organization alone, so its member states also began to collaborate through various other channels simultaneously. They include bilateral cooperation and engagement through other mechanisms such as the Amazon Cooperation Treaty Organisation (ACTO). This chapter argues that a deepening of interactions between Brazil and Peru took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, spilling over from healthcare to other areas, often through ACTO. These areas include the protection of indigenous rights, the formation of an integrated management system of the Amazon River Basin and ensuring control over the extraction of natural resources, among others. As a result, this ultimately helped to deepen the process of regional integration in Latin America.