The Puebla Group, the political and academic forum of the Latin American left, will analyze the food and economic crisis that the world is experiencing on its next anniversary, reported former Chilean presidential candidate Marco Enríquez-Ominam.
“On the anniversary of the Puebla Group, it is inevitable that the economic and food crisis and the political responses to these problems will be dealt with,” Enríquez-Ominami said in dialogue with the Sputnik agency. The leader specified that the date of the event, in which several progressive leaders of the region will participate, has not yet been stipulated.
Enríquez Ominami considered that the crisis is “more acute and dramatic” every day for Africa and Europe, because in addition to increasing the price of fuel, it is an inflationary crisis in dozens of countries.
“Added to this is the fact that before the imminence of social unrest, rapid and constant responses are needed,” he said.
The former Chilean presidential candidate also highlighted the situation in Latin America and the Caribbean as the region hardest hit by Covid-19.
“We are barely 8 percent of the world and we account for 30 percent of the deaths from Covid-19, we have our finances meager and a good part of our economies in debt, some of them simply unable to service the interest on the debt, we have a liquidity problem,” he warned.
Despite everything, Latin America has “a part of the solution”, since Brazil and Argentina have enormous capacities to solve the food problems of hundreds of millions of inhabitants of the planet.
“In addition, there are countries like Venezuela that have a part of the solution to the global energy crisis,” he added.
The conflict in Ukraine and the sanctions of the United States and the European Union against Russia caused a food crisis that is further aggravated by the rise in the price of oil and its derivatives.
The UN warned that the problem of food shortages and rising prices, which threaten to unleash a world famine, could be solved if supplies are restored from Russia and Ukraine, the world’s main producers of wheat and other cereals.
Russia, Turkey and the UN today signed an agreement that facilitates the export of grain and fertilizers from Ukraine.
In addition, Moscow signed a memorandum with the international organization to contribute to the export of Russian fertilizers and agricultural production to world markets.
According to a report by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) published in early June, 7.8 million people are at risk of falling into food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean due to inflation and the slowdown in the economic growth; that figure would be added to the 86.4 million people who are already in this situation in the region.
