Children Die Of Malnutrition In Northern Argentina

In parched and dusty villages in northern Argentina, children have been dying of hunger and disease linked to a lack of clean water and nutrition, despite living in one of Latin America's richest economies

Salta, Argentina, (APP - UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 5th Mar, 2020 ) :In parched and dusty villages in northern Argentina, children have been dying of hunger and disease linked to a lack of clean water and nutrition, despite living in one of Latin America's richest economies.

Community leaders say that since January, eight children have died of malnutrition in an isolated indigenous area in northwestern Salta province, the country's poorest.

For Valerio Cobos, chief of the Wichi community that is losing its children, his people's extreme poverty is the result of white repression of indigenous people during the last century.

"For the whites, we are less than rubbish," he told AFP.

Cobos said that eight children had died of hunger and two others from health problems associated with a lack of clean water and food in his scattered community.

Cobos is leader of around 50 families living on the outskirts of Embarcacion, a northern town built on lands the Wichis claim as theirs.

The spate of child deaths has prompted the local government to declare a health emergency and pledge to improve water treatment and supply in the region.

A complicating factor is that many of the community's women only speak the Wichi language and avoid going to health centers or hospitals where there are no interpreters.