PORTO ALEGRE (Brazil), February 20—Samuel Kobia, secretary general of the World Council of Churches (WCC), commented on the political changes taking place in Latin America with the election of new governments in Bolivia and Chile.

He qualified as historical advances the election of Evo Morales as the first indigenous president of Bolivia, and that of Michelle Bachelet as the first woman to be elected president of Chile.

Kobia noted that the WCC’s 9th General Assembly, underway in this Brazilian city, is occurring soon after those important events, which in his opinion is an example of significant changes in the region in the last two years.

In addressing the issue of justice in the world, the religious leader said that the gift of life has been abused, and that human greed and thirst for power have created structures that force people to live in poverty.

He explained that now, where there is much more food for all, some 852 million people on the planet are going hungry, while every day 25,000 people die of starvation. He added that that horror is not something alien to Latin America, where globalization is making borders smaller, but is also exacerbating differences in power and wealth.

According to Kobia, there are reasons for suspecting that something is going wrong in the world if in the 21st century, the fortunes of the three richest people in the world amount to more than the total gross domestic product of the 48 least-developed countries.

Political arguments and economic rationalization cannot counteract the basic immorality of a world with so much inequality, he affirmed.

The WCC’s 9th General Assembly, which began on February 14, brings together more than 4,000 people from 348 Protestant, Orthodox and Anglican churches, which in turn represent more than 560 million believers in more than 100 countries.