Security & Strategic Review - November 2022

In early October the United Nations (UN) Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (CESCR), a panel of experts, concluded its consideration of the fourth periodic report of Guatemala. Among other things, experts questioned claims of progress by the government led by President Alejandro Giammattei to address malnutrition - a declared priority by the Giammattei administration which took office in January 2020 given Guatemala has one of the worst malnutrition rates in the region. The issue has long been attributed to structural inequalities and since made worse by the impacts of Hurricanes Eta and Iota in late 2020, the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, and more recently increasing prices of energy, fertiliser, and agricultural inports stemming from the Ukraine war.