Gustavo Coronel
February 20, 2017
Mr. Jose Graziano da Silva
Director General of FAO
Rome
Dear Mr. Graziano da Silva:
FAO in Venezuela is a shameful
organization
Last year, in March and May, I sent your office two letters
in which I denounced the cynical behavior of the FAO representative in Venezuela, Mr. Marcelo Resende, see:
http://lasarmasdecoronel.blogspot.com/2016/05/a-new-letter-to-fao-italy-about-its.htmlm
.
These
letters received no reply. In this new letter I
wish to reiterate my complaint, given that the cynical attitude of FAO
in Venezuela remains unchanged. It is truly unacceptable to see how FAO
keeps supporting and congratulating the performance of the Venezuelan
political regime in the availability and distribution
sectors, against all public evidence to the contrary. There is no need
to be a food and nutritional expert to see that Venezuela has been for
several years now under a severe crisis. In 2016 the former secretary
general of the United Nations had this to say:
“On
the Venezuela situation, we have been closely following the situation
there. I know that the economic situation is very difficult, and there
have been many protests expressed by the people, not only by political
parties. Again, all these issues should be very
seriously listened to, the voices of the people, and these issues
should be addressed very seriously as soon as possible, respecting the
freedom of assembly and freedom of the media. This is my comment on
this,
see: https://www.un.org/sg/en/content/sg/press-encounter/2016-10-03/transcript-secretary-generals-press-conference-palais-des
In
spite of this and other abundant evidence to the contrary, in 2013 you
presented a diploma to President Nicolas Maduro in your Rome
headquarters “honoring achievements in combatting hunger”. Mr. Maduro
gave his thanks in a speech, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzOwYPLWxo8,
in
which he gave credit to former dictator, Hugo Chavez, for eliminating
hunger in the country. This was received by your audience with much
applause.
In
June 2015 then Venezuelan Vice-president Arreaza (now replaced by a
person fingered by the U.S. government as a drug kingpin)
gave a speech in which he used official statistics that differ
significantly from the findings of Venezuelan and non-Venezuelan
independent observers such as CARITAS, see:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W3SOO6kYyDk.
A December 2016 report by CARITAS reveals serious malnutrition in the four Venezuelan states surveyed, see:
http://www.actuall.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/L%C3%ADnea-Basal-del-Monitoreo-Centinela-de-la-Situaci%C3%B3n-Nutricional-Caritas-de-Vzla.pdf?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiTmpCaU5tUmlObUV4TUdVMSIsInQiOiI3UE82dkx5bHF1K0tzSjNaVWplMVJJRThyelN2aUhBSTRkWWVMclNwS1liMHB3ZnBiNStQXC95cFM3cE4xclE0bDlDUHpBbnUrUWo0RFlSMHlMUHVyZ1BFekYzaTdEVkt6ajVrMktFc2szNTBMR1gzVGNqZlMralRrRlIxWmZwQlMifQ%3D%3D
. In this report they talk about up to 25% of children surveyed with
acute malnutrition; malnutrition of medium severity in the states of
Zulia and Vargas; family food intake of very low quality, lacking in
critical nutrients; people eating garbage found in
the streets and other horror stories.
Meanwhile
Mr. Marcelo Resende, your man in Caracas, has kept arguing in favor of
the Venezuelan regime and refusing to accept the existence of a
humanitarian crisis in the country. Last year he said, see: http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2016-07/20/c_135528096.htm:
“Marcelo Resende, Venezuela's representative for the United Nations
Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), told a food supply meeting that
the south American country "is
not in a position for humanitarian aid.. Freddy Bernal from the Local
Committees
for Supply and Production (CLAP) shared Resende's perspective through
his Twitter account that Venezuela doesn't need humanitarian aid,
opposing what leaders of the local right-wing opposition said. In April
2015, the FAO acknowledged Venezuela's fight against
hunger, the eradication of poverty and guaranteeing food”.
These
and other FAO claims of support for a regime that has converted
Venezuelans into beggars for food, instituting a perverse system by
which they distribute low quality food bags (a source
of immense corruption) to the Venezuelan people in exchange for
political loyalty, constitute an immoral posture which has gained FAO
much repulse from decent Venezuelans.
I
ask you respectfully, once again, to put things right in Venezuela’s
FAO office and in your own headquarters, so that your organization stops
being an accomplice of the tragic crime being
committed by the Venezuelan regime of Nicolas Maduro.
Sincerely,
Gustavo Coronel
Phone: 703-3567470
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