New York, 11 March 2021. Today Cuba presented to the Security Council open debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Food Security”, the priority given by the Government of the island to food security, which is endorsed in the Constitution of the Republic and is materialized through Cuba´s National Plan for Food Sovereignty and Nutritional Education, approved in July 2020.
In the written statement, presented by Permanent Representative Pedro Luis Pedroso Cuesta, it was highlighted how the Caribbean nation is facing the enormous challenges imposed by the economic, commercial and financial blockade of the United States, tightened as never before in the last four years, even during the COVID-19 pandemic, together with a policy of unprecedented hostility, all of which has a negative impact on the island’s food security.
As an example, the statement made reference to the fact that between April 2019 and March 2020 alone, damages of approximately 428,894,637 dollars were registered in the area of foodstuffs. These damages would have been avoided if Cuban companies had been able to access the US market without unfair and illegitimate restrictions.
It also highlights the island’s lack of access to financing from US banks and the international credit system, due to the so-called “country risk” and the fact that Cuba cannot make payments to third parties using US dollars , all of which makes its normal access to international markets for acquiring food and essential goods more expensive and difficult.
In addition, the text illustrates the heartbreaking situation of hunger and food insecurity in the world where almost 690 million people suffer from hunger and recognizes that the persistence of an unjust and unsustainable international order, burdened by decades of savage neoliberalism, is the foundation of the exponential growth of poverty, exclusion, hunger and food insecurity, while trillions of dollars are squandered on military expenditures instead of protecting life.
Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations
