Venezuela Gov’t Strengthens Cooperation With UN World Food Program

The Venezuelan Minister of Foreign Affairs, Jorge Arreaza, and the executive director of the World Food Program (WFP) of the United Nations (U.N.), David Beasley, met on Wednesday to evaluate the work path and strengthen cooperation to secure food sovereignty for all Venezuelans. 

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The meeting proceeded after the Venezuelan Minister attended the 41st conference of the U.N. Organization for Food and Agriculture (FAO) held on Tuesday in Italy, where President Nicolas Maduro’s commitment to intensify cooperation with the agency was reiterated. 

“We continue to deepen technical cooperation with all the specialized agencies of the United Nations,” Arreaza added. 

At the FAO conference, the Bolivarian government emphasized that despite the economic and financial aggression that the United States (U.S.) government promotes against the nation, Venezuela is making great efforts to carry out the distribution of food to its population. Arreaza explained that Maduro's administration has placed agriculture as a priority in an effort to reduce the country's dependence on oil. 

The U.S.’s is preventing the nation from exporting and importing goods, including food and medicine, as around US$30 billion of Venezuela’s assets have been frozen in foreign accounts. Even in wartime, these sorts of collective punishments are illegal under the Geneva Conventions. 

“Sanctions kill,” Alfred De Zayas, former secretary of the U.N. Human Rights Council (HRC) and an expert in international law told The Independent, adding that they affect mostly the poorest sectors of society, demonstrably cause death through food and medical shortages, lead to violations of human rights, and are aimed at coercing foreign entities. 

By doing so they violate one of the principal agreements reached by world governments, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1948. This set of basic rights and freedoms to which all people are entitled are the right to life, to work, to be educated, to be food and to housing, among others.