A severe drought that has now caused dozens of starvation deaths in Guatemala is an extension of the poverty and ill health in which 80 percent of Guatemalans still live, officials said last week.
The government of President Alfonso Portillo was forced to finally confront the reality of famine here, following the revelation that 41 people have died this year of starvation, including 13 children.
The deaths occurred at Camotan, Chiquimula, some 300 kilometers (180 miles) east of the capital Guatemala City.
Government embarrassment was further heightened with publication of dramatic photographs showing famine-stricken children with swollen stomachs, their eyes protruding from bony faces, symptoms of severe malnutrition.
Thus far, Food and Agriculture Minister Jorge Escoto had denied the severity of the effects of the drought, which is also affecting Honduras and Nicaragua.
Social groups rushed to act after the photos were published, in a campaign entitled "Movement of Solidarity."
According to a study by the Guatemalan government and by World Food Program officials, lack of rain has caused a severe impact in 48 municipalities in the departments of Zacapa, Chiquimula, El Progreso, Jalapa, Jutiapa, Santa Rosa, Suchitepequez, Retalhuleu, and Baja Verapaz.
Portillo expressed surprise that the famine revelation caused the outrage it did, noting that malnutrition already affects 80 percent of the 11 million people in Guatemala classed as living in poverty.
The Guatemalan leader insisted that the government lacks resources to amend the situation by investing in health and education.
"The problem of famine is not only in Jocotan (close to Camotan) but of the whole country. I'm surprised at the scandal that has been made about this because everyone knows that 80 percent of Guatemalans live in abject poverty," Portillo said.
And that figure covers people who are not only hungry but homeless.
Guatemala is "an embarrassment, being the Latin American country that invests the least in human beings," Portillo said.
However, a significant portion of the nation's budget is still dedicated to military spending.
The army this year received 105.9 million dollars, a figure that will rise to 150.3 million dollars in 2002.
By comparison, the Heath Ministry received 209.8 million dollars this year, compared 220.7 million budgeted for next year.
The World Food Programme, meanwhile, has already begun to hand out 238 tonnes of corn, beans and oil among 4,032 families who live in eight municipalities of El Progreso.
The organization warned it would need another 2,762 tonnes of food and was waiting for 1,134 tonnes promised by the United States -- and urged the international community to send more. |
