UN: Virus could push 14 million into hunger in Latin America

World Food Program is warning that upward of at least 14 million people could go hungry in Latin America as the coronavirus pandemic rages on, shuttering people in their homes, drying up work and crippling the economy.

“We are entering a very complicated stage,” said Miguel Barreto, the WFP’s regional director for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The escalating hunger comes as the COVID-19 pandemic increasingly ravages Latin America.

food agency executive director David Beasley warned in April that an addition 130 million people could be “pushed to the brink of starvation” worldwide by the end of 2020.

“We could enter another lost decade,” said Alicia Bárcena, chief of the U.N.’s regional economic branch, referring to a previous downturn during the 1980s that took Latin America 25 years in order to recover 1979 per-capita income levels.

“Latin American governments hardly have the resources to finance their current levels of spending,” said Sergio Guzmán, director of Colombia Risk Analysis.

Across the region, nearly 30 million more people are expected to find themselves in “situations of poverty” and another 16 million among the extreme poor, the U.N.

In Haiti, Lebien said he feels rudderless unable to provide for his family, especially when his two daughters tell him they are hungry.