Venezuela and its economic crisis continue to negatively mark the social statistics of the region. This was revealed, on Tuesday, the latest report of the United Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO, for its acronym in English).

The study reveals that the estimated undernourishment rate for Venezuela for the 2015-2017 triennium is 11.7% of the population, that is, in absolute terms, 3.7 million Venezuelans suffer from chronic hunger and are undernourished.

The FAO presented yesterday in Rome its report "The state of food security and nutrition in the world 2018". There it is shown, in the case of Venezuela, that for the 2004-2006 period, the number of undernourished persons was 2.8 million.

It is also observed that in the 2012-2017 period the number of women of childbearing age (15-49 years) affected by anemia increased: from 1.8 million in 2012, the rate rose to 2 million women. Another of the few items for which information is available is that related to the number of adults (aged 18 or older) who are obese (a product of malnutrition), a figure that rose from 4.6 million to 5.4 million. Venezuelans

In the rest of the items in the study, there are no data because they were not available to FAO by the Government, for example, those referring to the number of children under five years of age who suffer from emancipation (low weight for height), number of children under five years of age suffering from stunting, among other data.

According to the Sputnik news agency, the percentage of people suffering from hunger in South America increased slightly in recent years, largely due to the political, social and economic crisis that Venezuela is going through. This was stated to the agency by FAO's Director of Statistics, José Rosero.

The Ecuadorian specialist stressed that Venezuela "is the country that bears most of the explanation for the growth observed in South America." The report states that in South America there is a slight increase in the percentage of people with hunger, which is estimated at 5% for 2017, when in 2012 it was 4.7%.

This South American situation, explained the director of statistics of the agency to Sputnik, is partly responsible for the stagnation that is observed throughout the region of Latin America and the Caribbean, where undernourishment remains at 6.1% in recent years.

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"The indices of Venezuela drag South America and in any case also drag the trend of stagnation in Latin America and the Caribbean," said the specialist. Precisely, the region experienced a marked decline in undernourishment between 2005 and 2015, when it stagnated in general terms, while it began to decline in South America.

However, Central America and the Caribbean maintained a downward trend, although less significant in recent years. The situation in the region, however, is in line with what happens globally.

It is estimated that some 821 million people suffer from hunger worldwide, equivalent to 10.9% of the world's population. In 2005, the population affected by undernourishment reached 14.5%.

"The main message we give through this publication is that we have evidence to confirm what we said in 2017: that hunger is growing in the world," said Rosero.

Personal opinion

The situation within the country is critical when we speak of poor nutritional status of the population, we are talking about people who have lost an average of 10 to 15 kilos, some claim that it is a product of concerns derived from the situation of the country and others accept that it is for the bad eating.

Being any of the cases, it is alarming since this is reflected in a strong way in the Venezuelan child population, in hospitals it is already common to hear infant deaths due to malnutrition, it is time to take action on the matter from the government of Nicolas Maduro.

@chanchuy