The Minister of Social Development, Martín Lema, delivered documents on Tuesday to the president of the Broad Front, Fernando Pereira, which, according to the hierarch, “discredits his public expressions” about food insecurity.
In a thread made on his Twitter account, Lema published that “among the documents” that were shared with Pereira are reports from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in Uruguay (FAO). “which show that Uruguay has been the country with the best performance in the region in managing food security during the pandemic and that in 2016 there was greater food insecurity than in 2020“.
In turn, he said that he was given the Child Development and Health Survey for the year 2018, which showed that “37% of children from 0 to 4 years old in a situation of greater socioeconomic vulnerability presented food insecurity“.
In October of this year, the First National Report on the Prevalence of Food Insecurity in Households was presented, prepared by the Ministry of Development (Mides), the National Food Institute (INDA), the Ministry of Public Health (MSP) and the National Institute of Statistics (INE). The report noted that 15% of Uruguayan households have “moderate or severe food insecurity,” and within that total, 2.9% of them suffer “seriously.”
At that time, Pereira had declared that the figures hurt because “the future was mortgaged.” “The Broad Front took over the government in 2004 with 50% child poverty and brought it to 17%” and He assured that the government had a hard time “admitting” what the Broad Front had done to reduce child poverty.
Lema had responded, also with a Twitter thread, that it was “demagogy” by Pereira:”Let me inform a person who leads a political party that in order not to do low-level politics, it is necessary to be informed and do not resort to demagogy“, he had maintained.
On the other hand, Lema published that he also presented “the conclusions of the administrative investigation that was presented to the Prosecutor’s Office with more than 700 sheets of probative documentation that confirms irregularities in the handling of food by the Popular and Solidarity Coordinator“.
In turn, he also pointed out that “data on the decrease in the demand for food that was generated in this year 2022” were included. “There was a drop in 426,409 food places prepared by the Armed Forces at the request of the departmental governments with respect to the year 2021“, he wrote and added that there was a drop in the demand for food from INDA.
“So far this year, 739,662 fewer servings were distributed among the 57 food delivery points of the National Canteen System (SNC), compared to January – October 2021,” he wrote.
“Compared to 2021, this year 58,304 fewer servings per week were served in pots. Despite the drop in demand, we request resources in Surrender for INDA in order to respond to the structural problems dragged on for years in access to food“, finished.
