BUENOS AIRES, Jan 8 (NNN-MERCOPRESS) — Argentina’s government will begin to distribute food cards to low-income families beginning later this month as part of its anti-hunger program.
Social Development Minister Daniel Arroyo announced during a live presentation of Argentine Plan Against Hunger the government reached an agreement with the Governor Jorge Capitanich from the northern province of Chaco to fight with hunger.
Arroyo said more than 66,000 cards will be distributed in Chaco, the first region where the initiative will be launched, starting Jan 20. It will be given to mothers with children younger than 6-years-old, pregnant women who completed their first trimester and people with disabilities.
He said the cards will be reloaded on the third Friday of each month and ”mothers with a child under six-years-old will receive 4,000 pesos (US$ 67) and mothers with two and more children under that age will receive 6,000 pesos (US$ 100) monthly to purchase all kind of foods.”
Argentina is suffering high inflation and unemployment after a sharp devaluation of its currency in 2018 and it did not improve much under former President Mauricio Macri presidency, although he signed a US$ 57 billion dollar International Monetary Fund (IMF) deal to halt the peso’s slide.
The U.S. warned that current President Alberto Fernandez government’s foreign policy moves may jeopardize support from the IMF and American investment.
A senior official in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration commented that sheltering former Bolivian President Evo Morales and engaging with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime “could cost Argentina backing for new IMF funding and investment.”
Washington recognizes Bolivia’s interim government led by Jeanine Anez and Venezuela’s opposition leader Juan Guaido as the legitimate rulers of their countries.
