Hunger and obesity are on the rise in Latin America, particularly in Venezuela, Argentina and Bolivia. In 2017, 39.3 million people were undernourished and 3.6 million were obese, the United Nations said on Wednesday.
Impoverished Venezuelans have reacted with fury after videos of President Nicolas Maduro gorging on succulent pieces of meat in a restaurant owned by a celebrity Turkish chef went viral.
Ecuador is organizing a meeting with the ministers of Foreign Relations from 13 countries in South and Central America to discuss the exceptionally high number of migrating Venezuelans escaping the economic crisis in their country, the Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
Brazil's President, Michel Temer, called an emergency meeting of key ministers Sunday after ordering troops to the border with Venezuela as regional tensions build over the exodus from its crisis-hit neighbor.
Uncertainty reigned in Venezuela on Saturday after President Nicolas Maduro unveiled a major economic reform plan aimed at halting the spiraling hyperinflation that has thrown the oil-rich, cash-poor South American country into chaos.