Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Caracas (Agenzia Fides) – The Bishops of Venezuela have called for a "thorough and detailed" investigation into the scandal of thousands of tons of food products imported by the government and lost because they were allowed to expire, left for a year in warehouses in the nation's ports (see Fides 09/06/2010), when they could have fed 500,000 of Venezuela's poorest families. In a statement sent to Fides by the Bishops' Conference, CEV, the Bishops say: “this is a sin which cries to the sky and reveals the moral decline of the responsible organisations”.
“We call for a thorough and detailed investigation on the episode - the Bishops' statement reads -, we expect determination and transparency in denouncements and investigations, and adoption of the necessary measures to ensure that similar events never happen again”. The Bishops stressed the importance of “freedom of expression and the right to denounce” as “social values indispensable for the balance of power ”.
Venezuelans today need a social and political climate which fosters spiritual serenity, which allows them to have an overall vision of reality and to reflect on the importance of their free and conscious participation in elections on 26 September.
The statement, signed by Archbishop Ubaldo Ramón Santana Sequera of Maracaibo also CEV President and by other Bishops representing the Bishops' Conference as a whole, regards the question of food products which arrived at various ports of Venezuela in 2008. It is still not clear just how many thousands of tons of food were lost on that occasion. (CE) (Agenzia Fides, 23/06/2010)
