Interview: New food supply plan to help bring economic recovery to Venezuela -- expert

Venezuela is expected to see an economic recovery in the second half of 2016 thanks to a new food supply plan, a Venezuelan economist has said.

"I feel this new initiative will anchor policies designed to stop the economic war and we will see an economic recovery in our country during the second half of the year," Tony Boza told Xinhua.

President Nicolas Maduro on Monday announced the Great Sovereign Supply Mission aimed at ending the country's critical supply problems for basic foodstuff.

Maduro said the implementation of the new plan, which will be overseen by the military, would change the current distribution system in what he called an "economic war" launched by opposition politicians.

"This policy was properly designed, as it involves the direct participation of those affected, who understand the problems of each person in every family," said Boza, author of "La Guerra Contra el Pueblo" (The War Against the People).

According to a government decree, the supply plan seeks to "transform the production and distribution model for foodstuff" and "neutralize destabilizing actions being carried out in the national agricultural system."

Defense Minister Vladimir Padrino Lopez, who is in charge of this operation, on Tuesday deployed military forces in agricultural areas and to offer assistance in ports, processing plants and companies involved in agriculture and food preparation.

Padrino Lopez said this was simply a supervision process and was not "a matter of militarizing ... but a matter of the security of the nation."

"The armed forces will act to facilitate, strategically plan, supervise, finance, assist and verify this drive. This is not an intervention," he said.

Boza believes that military involvement is crucial as it will allow better coordination between the military and civil society.

Falling oil prices in recent years have plunged the oil-exporting country into a deep economic crisis aggravated by a political power struggle between the ruling Socialist party and conservative opposition groups. Endi