43 million people are starving in Latin America

The situation of hunger and food insecurity in Latin America and the Caribbean is “concerning” and “challenging”with almost 43 million people suffering from hunger, a scourge which, however, is not unique to this region, but has become a global problem.

This is what they agreed to point out in interviews for EFE Luis Lobo, Spain-FAO Program Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean; Juan Martín Rodríguez, Co-President of the Food Safety Group of the Euro-Latin American Parliamentary Assembly (Eurolat)and MEP Soraya Rodríguezon the occasion of the meeting of the forum of parliamentarians in Santo Domingo.

“It is a worrying and also challenging situation because the numbers are not very good“, said Spain’s Lobo, who estimated the number of food insecure people in the region at 248 million.

The expert attributes the situation to the “perfect storm” the world is experiencing due to the pandemic, climate change and inequality itself region of.

But as hunger grows in the area, so does it The number of people with obesity or overweight is growing, almost 70% of the populationwhile 30% of food is wasted, according to the above.

The The data remains “as critical” as it was before 2019the year before the pandemic, despite the fact that there was a slight decline in 2022, he added.

All this, despite the fact that “if (the region) has anything, it is wealth in food, in food production”, he said for his part. Uruguayan deputy Martín Rodríguezwhich advocated “concrete action” by governments to address the situation.

Haiti, a critical case

Although the state of hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean is worrying, that of Haitiwhich has been going through an unprecedented crisis for years, “is critical”, summarized an official of the Spanish-FAO program for Latin America and the Caribbean.

This is shown by data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). 4.9 million people in Haiti, almost half of the population of this depressed countrysuffers from acute hunger, a situation that continues to increase due to the crisis, compounded by violence imposed by armed gangs.

Haiti’s problem is already “global” in nature and Solutions must also be “global”Lobo said, echoing the sentiment expressed a day earlier by several participants in the inauguration of Eurolat in the Dominican Senate.

The serious crisis that Haiti has been going through for years led the UN Security Council to approve a multinational aid forces police for that impoverished Caribbean nation, which Kenya will lead.

From the FAO “we will continue to support Haiti and its government with all its weaknesses (…) because it is a priority country”He said.