poverty that affects more than half of the 13 million Guatemalans, combined with crop damage caused by a severe winter has exacerbated the food crisis in Guatemala , which boasts more than 11,000 cases of acute malnutrition and the death of at least 54 minors. Lily
Caraventes , Secretary for Food Safety and Nutrition estimated that some 54,000 families are directly affected by the food crisis and another 400,000 are at high risk, specifically in the departments of Solola, Huehuetenango, Quiche, Zacapa , Chiquimula, Jalapa, Santa Rosa and . She said that area of \u200b\u200bthe country, which is called "corridor dry "has already suffered in the past, the same problem of lack of food, which resulted in the first half of the death of 462 people from malnutrition or related causes this problem, including 54 minors .
The president, Alvaro Colom , last week renewed the declaration of national emergency to address the food crisis, which was initially reported in January 2010. The measure was adopted before the drought with central part of the country and spread throughout the territory. Since May, the crop situation is compounded by heavy rains in interior. Colom acknowledged before the international community in the rural areas are experiencing a difficult situation by the lack of food, driven largely by structural poverty. The declaration will allow the Guatemalan government access to international assistance provided for these cases and to mobilize national budget with more agility, as defined by the president in his official message to the nation.
"I decided to use law enforcement and declare a state of disaster throughout the country, since the consequences of inadequate food and nutrition affects not only the departments Corridor Dry, but the entire country " said Colom .
According to a study of the Ministry of Health Food (Sesan) , submitted on August 16 the number of communities at risk of hunger rose by 113% over the past three months due to drought. For its part, the World Food Programme (WFP) began Tuesday to distribute 20 tons of biscuits in 164 communities hardest hit areas.
Picks historical
President defined the situation as a tragedy dimension historical "by the extent of the population it affects. Alvaro Colom said in his message that, in addition to the effects of drought and economic crisis, a long history of inequality has led to the highs and shameful levels of poverty, extreme poverty and malnutrition are installed in Guatemala since long. "Inadequate food and nutrition, malnutrition in its various manifestations, is a historical and structural problem of the country."
"So I make a fervent call to all sectors of national life all contribute to addressing this serious problem and its various manifestations, both in regard to emergency action and to those deeper than we have to solve " , the president said.
In April 2009, Unicef \u200b\u200bpublished a report warning that one in two Guatemalan children suffer from chronic malnutrition and 80% of indigenous children under 5 years old have serious eating disorders.
Despite being far from the economic situation Haiti (the poorest country in Latin America ) Guatemala doubles cases of malnutrition has Haiti. Of the 13.3 million Guatemalans, more than half live in poverty and their main livelihood is agriculture, affected each year by droughts and floods that cause loss of maize and beans, their main livelihood.
The government has so far $ 7.5 million to assist families in worse condition. But the state budget to combat malnutrition had to be reduced as a result of the international financial crisis because the country had received fewer remittances and lower tax revenues.
A permanent food nightmare
Guatemala lives in constant food nightmare. As a result both of an endemic socioeconomic inequality as the ravages of nature, these diseases strike without mercy, and every year to this small Central American country of just over 13 million people.
The Guatemalan drama does not go through an inability to produce food. The country is, in itself, a barn to which the poor distribution and management of natural resources have played a trick. And if hunger is not a problem in the world rankings of the nations most vulnerable to climate change Guatemala ranks fourth and, in Latin America, the first.
to this is that its surface of 108,889 square kilometers, is crossed by three tectonic plates and 44 volcanoes that rise into the clouds threatening in mountainous terrain nestled between the Sierra de los Cuchumatanes and Sierra Madre .
In the last twelve years, this vulnerability has been tested time and again to the ravages of Hurricane Mitch (1998), the tropical storm Stan and Agatha (2005 and 2010, respectively), the storm 16 (2008), drought (2001, 2009 and 2010) and the eruption of the volcano Pacaya (2010). Today
incessant rains again threaten the lives of Guatemalans. Hundreds of people have died in recent weeks, the product of the floods and landslides. The country, sandwiched between Mexico the north and El Salvador and Honduras -lived in the south last year an unprecedented drought, a phenomenon that until September, when the government declared a state of public calamity, had left around of 462 dead, including 54 children. The green crops
disappeared scorched by the heat and lack of water and, with them, little food and impoverished peasants, who could store any type of product, saw how they began to disappear with the passage of weeks adding to widespread hunger.
And is that 52% of Guatemalans live in rural areas, percentage of which just over 80% depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, according to United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Arrivals
rains in April, which looked like a salvation to the persistent drought has become a new torment with Agatha .
Floods and landslides were quick to make his own in a field that was crowded with thousands and thousands of liters of water that fell in just time.
He began the ordeal for the authorities and population, once again, given that sectors that were not affected by the drought that took place mainly in the so-called dry corridor, were exposed to Storm, as the costs and mountains.
"About 62 000 families were affected by the loss of crops, not only corn and beans (staples of the Guatemalan diet), but also vegetables and export products, such as the shrimp, flowers, which meant a loss of income and food security and nutrition "says Lily Caravantes , the Secretariat for Food Security and Nutrition in Guatemala (Sesan) .
inequality, which kills more
Chronic malnutrition primarily affects over 50% of the Guatemalan population under five years and focuses on "rural areas, where most indigenous peoples, with seven out of ten poor ," the FAO .
addition, "We have a large segment of society live at subsistence level and very poor conditions "says Lily Caravantes .
is why, explains, it is imperative that "is understood that malnutrition should not be seen as a humanitarian problem as a problem not only in social areas, but as an economic, structural and endemic " .
"The high vulnerability of communities living thousands historically has created economic and political models that have governed the country. The accumulation of wealth in a small percentage of the population has resulted not only unequal distribution of land, but access to cheap labor that large farms have , researchers postulate Edwin and Alex Castellanos War, the paper "Climate change and its effects on human development in Guatemala " published by United Nations Programme for Development (UNDP).
In numerical terms, the representative of the FAO in Guatemala, Ivan Angulo , specifies that "80% of the tierraestá owned 10% of the population. This means that large sections, 54% of people who are in poverty, have not even likely to have an area in which to try to develop a productive activity " .
The enormous economic gap to access to food does not help to improve the situation. The rural minimum wage for five people, according to estimates by the FAO is below the income necessary to purchase a basic basket, which cost the Sesan estimated at $ 250.
difficulties to diversify crops and almost inactive domestic trade have also become a headache for the authorities to run a country "where change (the system as set) is not easy, because structural reforms are needed, clearly, many times not all people agree " said Reinhard Jung-Hecker , representative Latin America and the Caribbean of DG Humanitarian Aid (DG ECHO) .
In light of the data, the drama "has a background of over forty years, where poverty and inequality were giving way to the scene which we live today," adds Ivan Angulo.
of $ 1,553,000 losses
economic losses caused by rain so far in 2010 totaled 1,553 million U.S. dollars
, reported
representative of the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC ), Ricardo Zapata .
He told a press conference
losses represent 4.1 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) , which will impact on lower economic growth in 2010, which is estimated at just over 2 percent.
Zapata, who coordinates a committee of the
ECLAC evaluating the damage caused by rain, said that, in absolute terms, losses, until September 20, amounted to 1,553 million dollars.
only tropical storm "Agatha" and the violent eruption of Pacaya volcano
in late May, causing economic losses of $ 1,000 million.
"There are disasters that are affecting the country. The rain saturated the ground and was severe in May and now the rains in the normal range may cause more floods and landslides" said Zapata
. According
The ECLAC report
, a total of 559,923 people have been affected this year by the rains, of which 207,845 were evacuated, and 142,775 of them ended up in shelters.
For its part, the System coordinadordel
United Nations in Guatemala, Mauricio Valdez , said UN efforts
, besides collaborating with the development of a plan of reconstruction, have focused on humanitarian aid.
Since last May to date, he said, has given humanitarian assistance by $ 6 million. According
National Coordinator for Disaster Reduction (CONRED) , rains have left 274 dead this year
.
Guatemala has been declared at orange alert today by civil protection authorities
by Tropical Storm "Matthew." (Sources: ANSA-America, BBC-World, Free Press and EFE) 
