Last week, U.S. Air Force General Douglas M. Fraser, Commander of US Southern Command, testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. SOUTHCOM is the U.S. military's arm in the Americas, and naturally deals frequently with issues relating to the drug trade and organized crime syndicates. During his testimony (PDF), he highlighted the problems posed to U.S. security by the easy flow of illicit money across borders.
Christian has just released a new video highlighting the important link between poverty and tax evasion in Guatemala. Check it out:
Hannah Richards, Christian Aid's communications and information officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, recently wrote about this problem in a blog post on the Christian Aid website after witnessing the devastating effects of tax-dodging on the ground in Guatemala.
Hannah writes:
CHRISTIAN AID—More than a billion people across the world will go to bed hungry on Saturday, the day the United Nations has designated World Food Day. The growing food crisis, which is leaving millions of people without enough to eat, has inequality at its root. Most markets have plenty of food, yet the price has risen beyond the reach of ordinary people.
The Latin American country is wealthy, but the extreme gap between rich and poor causes a multitude of problems
Isabel is four years old. Her belly and ankles are swollen and she walks as if it hurts a little bit. Her family, who live in eastern Guatemala, have not had the means to feed her properly, so she is being treated for kwashiorkor – acute malnutrition.
Even though it is classified by the World Bank as a middle income country, the level of inequality in Guatemala is such that almost half its children under five ...
