Mexican president vows to end hunger for millions

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto launched a campaign against hunger today, pledging to transform the lives of nearly 7.5 million of the country's poorest, though he gave few details, prompting criticism that the plan was a "rehash" of old policies.

Tackling the poverty that blights Mexico has been a priority for many presidents of Latin America's second-biggest economy, and it was one of the first pledges Peña Nieto made when he launched his election campaign at the end of March.

The 46-year-old president outlined a four-point plan to tackle hunger in 400 of Mexico's roughly 2,500 municipalities, urging community action, local government responsibility and pledging to strengthen agricultural production in afflicted areas.

However, he did not detail the cost of the plan.

"It's painful and saddening that there are still Mexicans suffering with hunger here in Chiapas, and, it has to be said, in every corner of Mexico," said Peña Nieto, who took office on Dec. 1.

"This is not a handout program; it's not just about giving out food to those that need it," he added.

Peña Nieto was speaking in Las Margaritas in the poor southern state of Chiapas, a town that was a hotbed of resistance to the federal government in the 1990s.

Las Margaritas was also a stronghold of the Zapatistas, a leftist revolutionary movement that rose up against the government in 1994, partly in protest against Mexico's signing of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) with the United States and Canada.

Peña Nieto has won praise for pushing hard on a variety of reforms since taking office, but analysts were not convinced today, saying the anti-hunger plan was vague and seemed much like existing policies.

Peña Nieto pushed the 2013 budget through Congress barely a week after taking office and gained broad support for a landmark education bill, having convinced political rivals to sign a pact to work with him on a wide-reaching reform agenda.

Former President Felipe Calderón presided over a sharp rise in poverty, and nearly 60 million Mexicans - or around half the population - are now considered poor. That is roughly the same percentage as in the 1980s.

Peña Nieto has praised former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva's successful social policies, which lifted around 20 million people out of poverty between 2003 and 2009.