Venezuelan Foreign Minister in FAO Defends Food as Human Right

By Masiel Fernandez Bolaños, special correspondence

Rome, Jun 17 (Prensa Latina) Venezuelan Foreign Minister Elias Jaua asserted today here that food is a human right and not merchandise, different from what capitalism has established.

More images of FAO conference in: PhotosPL

The member countries of the Bolivarian Alliance for the People of our Americas (ALBA) have proven that when food is not considered business, as capitalism has imposed, and we give it its real nature of fundamental right, people begin to stop starving, Jaua told Prensa Latina during a FAO conference.

He highlighted that not by chance, four ALBA member countries (Nicaragua, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Cuba and Venezuela) were acknowledged by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) for having reduced in half or more the number of malnourished people estimated in the period 1990-1992.

Venezuela and Cuba have been an example in the framework of the ALBA of what policies to eradicate hunger in the region have been, the official said.

During his speech in the event, he thanked, on behalf of late President Hugo Chavez, the award granted to his country and remarked that thanks to the Socialist Revolution that he fostered so much, there is a small number of those starving in that country.

Venezuela has a huge public food-distribution network, making possible that more than 60 percent of the homes receive those products, increasing calorie-availability and access by the population to a progress supported by a strong legal framework.

In the international context Jaua referred to the existence of regional initiatives that support the progress achieved, including the ALBA, the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States, the Union of South American Nations and Petrocaribe.

Besides, he insisted on one of the proposals by Commander Chavez of creating a bank of agricultural supplies to support management regarding food, and reiterated President Nicolas Maduro’s request of official support from the FAO, with the objective of fostering sustainable development policies.