Marcia Miranda: One sixth of South Americans live in misery

The latest statistics revealed by the World Food Programme show that one sixth of the inhabitants of South America live in misery, without having access to the minimum required levels of nutrients necessary for good health.

The WFP statistics point out that around 70 million of the continent’s 450 million inhabitants face a “precarious nutrition situation”. The geographical incidence related in the figures shows that poverty is evenly distributed from north to south, east to west. This is therefore not a question of climate, but of politics.

Oppressive regimes staffed by corrupt officials, practising unveiled nepotism, supported in many, if not all, cases by the USA to as to create a basis for its financial institutions to operate while the populations are bled dry, are responsible for this unacceptable situation.

For instance, in Brazil, 10% of the population is under-nourished, affecting no less than 16,000,000 persons. 40,000,000 people live below the UNO-stipulated poverty levels. This is a country which produces record-breaking levels of food every year and which is practically self-sufficient in oil. The only reason possible for a quarter of its population to be living in poverty, and 10% in abject misery, is bad management by its political class.

However, Brazil is not alone. Francisco Roque, the World Food Programme spokesperson for South America, said that “for 70 million people of this continent, the only certainty is that the following day they will not have enough food to feed their children”.

The worst effects of this poverty are felt in Haiti, Nicaragua, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, Honduras, Guatemala, Brazil and El Salvador. In Haiti, 4,700,000 people out of a total population of 7.7 million (61%) are under-nourished, in Nicaragua, 31%, in the Dominican Republic, 26%, in Bolivia, 23%, in Honduras, 21%, in Guatemala, 17%, in El Salvador, 10%. In Mexico, the figure for the undernourished is 5,000,000 and for Colombia, 4,900,000.

These figures are not only sad. They are a shame for the political class of this continent, and for the vultures who keep corrupt regimes in power.

Marcia MIRANDA PRAVDA.Ru BRAZIL