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A28 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 30 July 2020
Brazil virus payout cuts extreme poverty to least in decades

By RICARDO COLETTA have started pressuring for
Associated Press another extension, arguing
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — Bra- the payments help prevent
zil's extreme poverty has further loss of support stem-
plunged due to a monthly ming from the president's
federal handout during the handling of the COVID-19
coronavirus pandemic, but crisis. Latin America's larg-
threatens to bounce back est nation has confirmed
once the government more than 2.4 million infec-
ceases the stopgap wel- tions and 88,000 dead —
fare program, a report said the second highest totals in
Tuesday. the world.
The study by the Getulio Bolsonaro has consistently
Vargas Foundation, a uni- downplayed the virus' se-
versity and think tank, said verity, arguing that the im-
the number of Brazilians pact of restrictions on eco-
living in extreme poverty nomic activity will prove far
fell to 6.9 million in June, or more damaging. Econo-
3.3% of Brazil's population mists surveyed by Brazil's
— the lowest level since the central bank expect the
late 1970s. As this year be- economy to shrink 5.8% this
gan, 6.2% Brazilians were in year.
extreme poverty, the study "Without controlling the
said. Residents gather as donated food, kits of cleaning products and protective face masks are epidemic there is no eco-
"Although we can't directly distributed amid the new coronavirus pandemic at the Maria Joaquina "Quilombo" in Cabo Frio, nomic recovery," Marcelo
on the outskirts of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Sunday, July 12, 2020.
compare the figures be- Associated Press Medeiros, a visiting profes-
cause of recent method- sor at Princeton University's
ological changes on the mothers receiving double. Duque said. "I think it is very rating downgrades in re- Brazil LAB who specializes
government's database, Duque and other experts likely we will return to previ- cent years, and Guedes in inequality, said by phone
we can say it's one of the say that helped alleviate ous poverty levels. I fear we assumed his position with from New Jersey. "Brazil
lowest proportions ever re- poverty in a nation riven can go back to even worse pledges to slash spending hasn't controlled the dis-
corded," Daniel Duque, by inequality, with average levels if the labor market and shore up government ease, so now the recovery
the study's author, said monthly income last year doesn't recover." accounts. will take much longer and
by phone from Rio de Ja- at $280, according to the The payments have al- "We can't continue for long. the damage will be great-
neiro. He used the World statistics institute. ready cost the government It's 50 billion reais per month er." While the rollout of the
Bank standard that clas- The experts warned, how- more than $32 billion and (around $10 billion). It's not social program was marred
sifies anyone earning less ever, that the relief is tem- President Jair Bolsonaro's money we have to spare. by widespread difficulties
than $1.90 a day to be in porary and the number of economy minister, Paulo We are increasing our debt for beneficiaries in access-
extreme poverty. impoverished Brazilians will Guedes, has said its coffers with it," Bolsonaro said early ing the funds, today the
The federal government rise after the last payment, can ill afford to maintain in July. payout directly or indirectly
since April has doled out currently slated for August. the program much longer. The benefit was initially reaches half of Brazil's pop-
$115 monthly to informal- "No question we are in Loose fiscal policy and ris- planned to last until June, ulation of 210 million, ac-
sector workers and micro a transitory situation. We ing government debt as but the president extended cording to the citizenship
businesses affected by won't have this volume of a percentage of GDP it by two months. ministry, which is doling out
the pandemic, with single income transfer forever," prompted a slew of credit Bolsonaro's political allies the amounts. q
Bolivian coca cultivation jumped by 10% in 2019, U.N. says

By CARLOS VALDEZ a mainstay of Indigenous A novel policy of "self-con-
Associated Press life in the Andean nation, trol" by coca growers im-
LA PAZ, Bolivia (AP) — where it is chewed, made plemented by Morales lost
Coca cultivation jumped into a tea or used in reli- relevance in the last year
10% in Bolivia in 2019, the gious rituals. of his government, when
final year of President Evo The U.N. agency, which the coca voluntarilly eradi-
Morales' government, cooperates with Bolivia cated was less than the in-
partly because of reduced in monitoring coca crops creased area, Rostan said.
eradication efforts amid ris- and uses satellite imagery, Morales, who led Boliv-
ing social and political con- did not say how much of ia's largest coca-growers
flicts, a U.N. agency said the coca grown is used to union, expelled the U.S.
Wednesday. make cocaine. Drug Enforcement Admin-
Growth in the Andean na- Thierry Rostan, a represen- istration from the country in
tion increased from 23,100 tative of the agency, not- 2017 and nearly doubled
hectares in 2018 to 25,500 ed the expansion of coca the amount of legal coca
hectares last year, said a fields in six of Bolivia's 22 na- destined for traditional uses In this Oct. 20, 2016 file photo, soldiers use machetes to cut down
report by the United Na- tional parks where a "signifi- to more 20,000 hectares. coca plants on an illegal coca plantation during a government
organized media trip to the Urkupina community of Chapare,
tions Office on Drugs and cant degradation of eco- Morales was forced to re- Bolivia.
Crime. Bolivia is the world's systems and the environ- sign in late 2019 and fled Associated Press
third largest coca producer ment" was seen. The most the country, creating un- Bolivia registered its first by the pandemic.
after Colombia and Peru. affected park was Madidi certainty over the future new coronavirus case in But the U.N. agency said
Coca leaf is the raw mate- National Park in the Bolivia's Bolivia's coca policy and March, meaning the 2019 it could affect future
rial for cocaine, but is also Amazon. eradication. figures were not affected production.q