Ethics and Democracy in Access to Food. The Venezuelan Case

Juan Fernando Marrero Castro,María José Iciarte García

doi:10.3389/fsufs.2021.635033

Juan Fernando Marrero Castro, María José Iciarte García

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2021.635033

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Abstract

The humanitarian emergency that Venezuela is experiencing, one of whose edges is the food insecurity of more than 80% of the population, coincides with the serious institutional deterioration of the country and with the rupture of the constitutional order under the so-called “socialism of the 21st century” (2005 to the present), as reflected in various reports, including that of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. Access to food as a fundamental human right is better valued and guaranteed in democracies, where free media and independent public powers function as counterweights to the central executive power and act as effective instruments for correcting the wrong policies in food and nutritional matters, and officials responsible for direct and indirect damages to the general population or to vulnerable groups, are sanctioned. This topic has been studied by Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. In functional democracies, the ethical dimension of the right to food is also better guaranteed, since this right is realized not only by ensuring sufficient, balanced and healthy food, to meet the nutritional needs of the population, but that food is supplied in a culturally acceptable manner and seeking ways, mechanisms and procedures that are not contrary to the dignity of human beings. As a human right, the State has the greatest responsibility in guaranteeing the right to food, but not to fulfill a mere welfare duty or as a benefactor, but to guarantee that no one suffers from hunger or severe malnutrition, providing safe, nutritious and sufficient food, to those who cannot do it themselves, prevent all forms of discrimination in access to food or resources that are used to produce them, such as land, and take measures to ensure that families and their members can feed themselves in a dignified manner. As the Venezuelan regime closed the door to freedoms, malnutrition, hunger and non-fulfillment of the right to food also grew, according to FAO reports and Sen's assumptions under these scenarios seem to hold in the country.

Highlights

INTRODUCTIONThe evasion of constitutional term limits can be seen as a way of collapsing democratic regimes as stated by the cited authors
The central idea of Sen (2006) around the issue that links a government regime with the nutritional status of the population, is that the system of political, economic, and social freedoms that better adjusts to the form of government that we know as democracy, is of cardinal importance in the prevention of extreme food crises and famines and in any case in correcting these when they occur
This research reviews the relationship between functional democracies and extreme food insecurity crisis in a population

Summary

INTRODUCTION

The evasion of constitutional term limits can be seen as a way of collapsing democratic regimes as stated by the cited authors This affected the holding of elections, with the balance and autonomy of powers that characterizes a democracy, with the persecution and imprisonment of the main leaders of the opposition, in addition to the judicialization of political parties opposed to the regime who are disqualified or conditioned on their participation in electoral events. The other countries that accompany Venezuela in this unfortunate situation projected by the WFP are: Afghanistan, Democratic Republic of the Congo, South Sudan, and Yemen [BBC News Mundo, 2020; WFP (Programa Mundial de Alimentos), 2020a] This registry is the corollary of a series of reports by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on the food and nutritional situation of Latin American and Caribbean countries, which have been warning of the deterioration of food insecurity in Venezuela, reaching 80% of the population, and violating the right to food. Decreeing many laws related to food and nutrition is not enough and does not guarantee the Food and Nutrition Security of the Venezuela, with a declared a Complex Humanitarian Emergency and the installation in 2019 of the international humanitarian coordination architecture of the UN, composed by OCHA (United Nations Coordination Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and a humanitarian country team with eight clusters activated, food security and livelihoods; health; nutrition; water, sanitation, and hygiene among them (OCHA, 2019)

TO FOOD INSECURITY AND THE RISK OF

THE ROLE OF DEMOCRACY IN PREVENTING EXTREME FOOD CRISES

Severely food

RIGHT TO FOOD

Findings

DISCUSSION