Child Hunger In Venezuela

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Venezuela, an oil-rich country located in the Northern coast of South America with many diverse natural attractions. Despite the country having the largest oil reserve in the world, there are alarming number of issues that have negatively impacted the most vulnerable group, children. In fact, the country is facing record levels of child malnutrition as there have been severe food shortages and an inflation rate of over 700%. Consequently, the Health Ministry of Venezuela reports the child mortality has jumped to 30% in the last year. In many parts of the country, including the capital; Caracas, child hunger is a humanitarian crisis seeing as more than 11% of children under the age of five are suffering either from moderate or severe acute …show more content…
As the economic and Political crisis deepens, the number of malnourished children increases. The President, Hugo Chavez, is often blamed to have caused the crisis because he implemented many ill-conceived economic policies that have destroyed Venezuela's capacity to produce goods domestically, including food. The government had reduced the money available for imports, such as, food and agricultural equipment when the oil prices started declining in 2014. The current President, Nicolas Maduro has not changed the policies and is continuing to neglect the citizens of the country. In fact, instead of the state offering protection, they create more threats by expanding uncertainty state control, military surveillance and government sanctioned criminal gangs. The government has chosen not to respond to this issue and had discreetly fired a Health Minister after he published the rate of infant mortality. Nevertheless, there has been a drastic increase in the number of protesters on the streets due to the shortage of food. In fact, there are about five food-related protests in Venezuela everyday as the number of protests have nearly doubled from last year. These protesters are demanding an economic reform and an end to the country’s authoritarian rule. They blame the President for the country’s staggering food crisis and want to have an election to remove him from power. However, President Maduro refuses to grant their requests and instead of allowing peaceful action, the government has turned to violence to deal with the protesters. In addition, the US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, said in a statement, “his disregard for the fundamental rights of his own people has heightened the political and economic crisis in the country.” She had also called for the immediate release of political prisoners. The neighbouring countries, such as,