Guatemalan President Otto Perez Molina on Monday declared a state of calamity in 17 of the country's 22 departments, where as many as 200,000 rural and indigenous families whose livelihoods depend solely on farming are said to have been afflicted by a severe drought in those areas and a potential famine.
"At a cabinet meeting this Monday, we signed a governmental decree that declares a State of Calamity in 17 departments as a result of the effects on agriculture of the prolonged drought," the president said in a tweet.
The decree, which requires legislative approval, would allow emergency assistance and humanitarian aid to be delivered to families in the affected regions which have been without rainfall for two months and suffered crop losses.
Agriculture Minister Elmer Lopez said at a press conference that the government needs some 60 million U.S. dollars over the next five months to cope with the food shortages.
There has been no precipitation since the beginning of June, an unusual phenomenon during the rainy season which normally runs from May through October. The lack of rains, coupled with heat waves, is a result of the El Nino phenomenon, analysts said.
Under the emergency aid plan that is expected to go into effect in October, families with children under the age of five would receive supplies of corn, beans and enriched flour, according to the agricultural official.