Stay updated with breaking news from Stefany martinez. Get real-time updates on events, politics, business, and more. Visit us for reliable news and exclusive interviews.
This year, more unaccompanied minors processed by immigration agents are from Guatemala than any other country. Analysts and US officials refer obliquely to “poverty” as an underlying cause of that influx. But often the reason is far more specific: hunger. “What we hear is, If I can t get food on my table, what am I doing here? “ said Ana María Méndez, Oxfam s Guatemala director. Guatemala now has the sixth-highest rate of chronic malnutrition in the world. The number of acute cases in children, according to one new Guatemalan government study, doubled between 2019 and 2020. The crisis was caused in part by failed harvests linked to climate change, a string of natural disasters and a nearly nonexistent official response. Supply-chain disruptions then led to a spike in prices. The cost of beans in Guatemala went up 19.6 per cent last year, according to the World Food Program. ....