translated from Spanish: Veracruz, where the number of poor in 10 years increased the most

Veracruz has 1.2 million more poor people than it was a decade ago. It is the largest increase in total poverty in the country. In fact, it is nearly half of the 2.9 million people who joined poverty in Mexico in the last 10 years, according to the most recent poverty measurement, corresponding to 2018 — the last year of Enrique Peña Nieto’s government— , presented by the National Council for the Evaluation of Social Development Policy (Coneval).
Although Chiapas, Guerrero and Oaxaca remain the states with the highest percentage of the poor, Veracruz’s lousy result puts him in the fourth worst position, when a decade ago there were seven other entities with the most poverty.
Read more: Poverty in Mexico has only reduced 2.5% in 10 years; Chiapas, Guerrero, Oaxaca and Veracruz increased
In 2008, 5 out of 10 Veracruzs (51.2%) were poor, they are now 6 out of 10 (61.8%). Extreme poverty also rose, from 16.8 to 17.7%. The increase occurred mainly from 2010, that is, during the government of the priist Javier Duarte, today in prison, and improved slightly in the last two years, when the panista Miguel Angel Yunes ruled.
These results contrast with what happened on average in the rest of the country, where there was a 2.5 percentage reduction in poverty between 2008 and 2018, and 3.6 points in extreme poverty.
Another state where the situation did not improve, but worsened, was Oaxaca. From having 61.8% of its population in poverty a decade ago, it now has 66.4%, which involved 360,000 more poor people. Although in this case it did not have an impact on extreme poverty, as there was an improvement of 5 percentage points of those who managed to overcome this condition. There the situation also improved in the last two measured years, already with the priist Alejandro Murat as a representative, but the situation was deteriorating since 2010, when Gabino Cué ruled.

In Morelos, the poverty level also rose, from 48.8% a decade ago to 50.8% last year, meaning that half of its population is already poor (one million people), and ranks as the seventh poorest state in the country. In the last two measured years, from 2016 to 2018, both moderate and extreme poverty worsened, jumping from 5.9 to 7.4%. There the situation began to deteriorate since 2010, when the panimician Marco Adame was still a representative, and only deteriorated during the six-year years of the perredist Graco Ramírez.
You may be interested: That 25 million Mexicans overcome poverty, government target for 2024
In total, eight entities have more poverty today than they did a decade ago. In addition to the three mentioned, Campeche, which reached 46.2% of the poor; Tamaulipas, at 35.1, as well as Colima, Mexico City and Sonora, which are kept with low levels of poverty, less than 30%.
The income level returned only to pre-crisis levels
In the last decade, since Coneval began multidimensional poverty measurements—that is, they take into account not only the money people have, but their social rights and deficiencies—the worst year for Mexico was 2014, a year after the start of the six-year Peña Nieto, when the 46.2% poor were reached.
After that there was a steady improvement, reaching the current 41.9%, which is the best data since 2008, but which implies a reduction of only 0.24 percentage points per year, which Coneval members considered insufficient. The slight improvement had to do with greater access of the population to the six dimensions that are measured: education, health services, social security, spaces and quality of housing, basic services in housing, and food. Although in the last two years, they stalled.

The percentage of the population in rural poverty rose from 62.5% in 2008 to 55.3% in 2018
The three entities with the highest percentages of population in poverty are Veracruz, Oaxaca and Colima. pic.twitter.com/mI6jNHdtEq
— José Nabor Cruz Marcelo (@JoseNabCruz) August 5, 2019

What has most determined the poverty of the population is the income, both at the national level, and particularly in the cases mentioned above of Veracruz, Oaxaca and Morelos. After a sharp drop in revenue from the global financial crisis that hit Mexico in 2009, last year it barely recovered to previous levels: 16.8% of the population now earns less than the minimum to meet their basic needs (about 6,000 pesos four-member urban family). It’s exactly the same percentage as in 2008.
61.1 million people still do not have sufficient income to acquire the basic food and non-food basket, the new executive secretary of the Coneval, José Nabor Cruz, lamented during the results. He added that there is a disproportionate concentration, as the country’s richest 10% earn 26 times more than the poorest 10%.
The other constant that has determined that so many people are still considered poor is the lack of social security, that is, having a system that provides health protection, savings to acquire housing, pension for retirement, or even childcare service Minor.
While the other deficiencies are less than 20% of the population, it affects 57.3%, despite having improved by almost 7 percentage points in the last 10 years. Like income, social security is generally linked to work, so Council researchers emphasized the need to focus on job precariousness and maintaining purchasing power.
Following the presentation of the Coneval’s results, the civil organization Action Citizen against Poverty sent a communiqué also pointing out these problems, linked to negative results of the economy and working conditions. “We have the majority of Mexicans who work underpaid and without effective access to health and social protection. That’s the cause of poverty. The solution is not only economic growth, but eliminating labor market injustices,” he said.

The latest #pobreza figures @coneval presented in #México today.
Learn more at: https://t.co/ftLCQAbwv2 pic.twitter.com/np7Htgr9Pr
— Citizen Action against Poverty (@FrenteaPobreza) August 5, 2019

What we do in Animal Político requires professional journalists, teamwork, dialogue with readers and something very important: independence. You can help us keep going. Be part of the team.
Subscribe to Animal Politician, receive benefits and support free journalism.#YoSoyAnimal

Original source in Spanish

Related Posts

Add Comment