About six million people receive free foods in Venezuela

Caracas, 23 Abr. AVN.- “About four million children receive food in their school thanks to the school feeding program (or PAE, in Spanish) and we have six thousand free meal centers attend about 900,000 people for free,” informed Venezuelan Vice-President Elias Jaua during the opening of a store of the Mercal network in Caracas.

Jaua remarked that thanks to the effort of the State, about six million Venezuelans feed for free in the country and that it adds up to the network set by the Government through the Mission of Food, which embraces Mercal, PDVAL and Bicentenario Supermarkets.

“That’s why FAO recognizes Venezuela as one of the countries which the strongest struggle against poverty,” Jaua said.

Furthermore, he said almost 15 million people have been benefited through the food distribution network set by the Revolutionary Government nine years ago.

These achievements are possible only in socialism, Jaua said, and he added that the Venezuelan opposition has proved to be able “to starve people” as they did during an employers’ strike in 2002, which affected the national economy and Venezuelans’ quality of life.

“Figures of Venezuelans’ food energy availability show that we went from 2,140 kilocalories (kcal) per inhabitant before the Revolution to 2,255 kcal during the two first years of the Chavez Administration. In 2003, due to the savage strike and sabotage, it dropped to 2,110 kcal.”

The Vice-President also commented that inflation and child mortality increased significantly thanks to destabilizing actions headed by the right-wing sector in 2002. “We had an inflation of 12.3% and with the oil sabotage it reached 31.2%; while child mortality had reduced to 17.1% before the coup d’État, but it increased to 18.2% with the coup. Today, it is 13.9%.”

“We are facing a mean enemy, but we know what to do, as we did on April 13, 2002. October 7 shall be useful to ensure the future, in socialism… here we are (the Government) in the streets, distributing foods, bestowing lands, loans, recovering roads and developing people’s agenda, with the President heading the country’s policies,” Jaua explained.