News of poverty

Recycled blankets and soup – volunteers help homeless as temperatures plummet

23-06-2022 23:16 Members of the Dando Una Mano and La Sachetera NGOs are providing vital assistance to the homeless in and around the capital as those living rough struggle against the freezing temperatures of the cold southern winter.

Family needs almost 100,000 pesos a month not to be poor

23-06-2022 14:29 A typical family in Argentina needed to earn almost 100,000 pesos in May not to qualify as living in poverty, according to INDEC.

Poverty fell to 37.3% in the second half of 2021

31-03-2022 15:55 Just over 37% of the population were living in poverty in the second half of 2021 – a drop of three points compared to the first half of the year, according to official data.

Jaime Perczyk: ‘The prime educational policy is economic policy’

18-02-2022 22:00 Education Minister Jaime Perczyk on the importance of classroom attendance, the pandemic’s impact on learning and the make-up of Argentina’s education system.

by Jorge Fontevecchia

'We're ignorant': Illiteracy haunts isolated Venezuelan village

13-10-2021 09:28 People in Ologá are facing a serious problem due to the lack of education, although it is far from being their main trouble since, for a long time now, they have also been suffering from lack of electricity, water, and domestic gas.

The poverty of patronage

02-10-2021 07:47 The defeat of the Frente de Todos government snapped a cruel paradox prevailing all this century whereby rising poverty represented a vicious socio-economic cycle for the nation but a virtuous circle for populist politics.

Pandemic pushes new homeless onto São Paulo's streets

29-08-2021 10:33 São Paulo is facing a homelessness crisis, as recent prices become too heavy of a burden for an increasingly impoverished population.

Sailing boats and cycle rickshaws in oil-rich, fuel-light Venezuela region

18-08-2021 15:13 Venezuelans are improvising to survive chronic fuel shortages in Zulia, the region that saw the birth of the nation's oil industry.

World Food Programme head warns of 'biblical' famine without action

30-06-2021 11:41 At the G20 Conferance, head of the World Food Programme David Beasley appealed for US$6 billion to prevent a "famine of biblical proportions" caused by pandemic-exasperated food shortages.

Venezuela's public sector surviving on 'starvation salary’

25-06-2021 23:46 Highest monthly salary for someone working in public administration is less than US$10 – many working in the public sector now take second or even third jobs to make ends meet.

Millions of pesticide containers illegally discarded or recycled in Argentina

04-06-2021 02:00 Argentina may be a leader in the production and sale of grains and oilseeds, but the country does not yet have a comprehensive strategy for the recycling of pesticide and fertiliser containers.

Pandemic, poverty loom over Mexican elections

02-06-2021 16:38 Mexico's Covid-19 death toll of more than 227,000 is the fourth-highest in the world. On Sunday, citizens will go to the polls to elect 500 members of the lower house of Congress, as well as 15 state governors and thousands of local politicians.

Economic downturn fuels crypto craze in Argentina

07-05-2021 08:00 As Argentines battles high inflation, a weaker currency and a shortage of US dollars, citizens have been putting their money into cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, Tether, Etherium or Dai.

‘Abandoned’: Pandemic exacerbates poverty in La Matanza

30-04-2021 02:00 In poverty-stricken La Matanza, the economic downturn sparked by the coronavirus pandemic is hitting hard, with more and more people flocking to soup kitchens to feed their families.

What we learned this week: April 3rd- April 10th

10-04-2021 09:22 The stories that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

Congress approves ‘ganancias’ reform, raising income tax floor

10-04-2021 09:06 Income tax bill exempts almost 1.3 million taxpayers from qualification; Companies also set to benefit from similar reform.

What we learned this week: March 27 to April 3

03-04-2021 08:55 A pick of some of the headlines that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

Some lessons in elementary Chinese

03-04-2021 08:24 Unfortunately for many millions of people, Argentina has long been programmed to get poorer and the Kirchnerite government is clearly determined to ensure the slide downhill continues.

by James Neilson

What we learned this week: March 20 to 27

27-03-2021 08:57 The pick of the stories that caught our eye over the last seven days in Argentina.

Francis Fukuyama: ‘There’s similarities between populism of Trump and Kirchnerism’

27-03-2021 07:46 US political scientist Francis Fukuyama – perhaps the most important intellectual of the last 50 years – on ‘The End of History,’ the coronavirus pandemic and populism.

by Jorge Fontevecchia