Hello, and welcome to the Latin America Weekly newsletter! In this issue: The looming hunger crisis in the region. Chile goes hard after a mining project. And the hiring slowdown in the region.
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Latin American hunger figures show worrisome trend
The humanitarian crisis striking the Yanomami people in northern Brazil is a beacon to Latin America’s worsening hunger figures. Not long ago, the regionâs leaders proudly boasted of improvements in countries’ food security status â but recent economic downturns have brought the ghost of hunger back to haunt the region.
What’s happening. Per the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), hunger afflicted 7.8 percent of Latin Americans in the 2019-2021 span. Between 2000 and 2016, the region had halved those figures, but they have creeped up consistently in recent years.
- Hunger prevalence remains below global average, which also took a turn for the worse at 9 percent. Other nutritional problems are above the global average.
Pandemic hit. But while hunger levels grew both regionally and globally, the jump was proportionally higher in...