Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has criticized the persecution of Cuba by the United States government, stating that the current crisis in the largest of the Antilles is not the result of a lack of production capacity, but rather of political interests that have established a tight economic, commercial, and financial blockade to cause these hardships.
According to the Cuban Foreign Ministry website, speaking at the opening of the Ministerial Meeting of the 39th Regional Conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) for Latin America and the Caribbean, the South American leader stated that the Caribbean nation is not experiencing hunger because it lacks the ability to produce or generate its own energy, but rather due to external conditions imposed by Washington’s hostile policies.
“Cuba is going hungry because they don’t want it to have certain things that everyone should have,” Lula stated regarding the situation on the island, which has been subjected for more than six decades to an economic, commercial, and financial blockade imposed by the United States and recently intensified by the Trump administration with the signing of the executive order that escalated the energy persecution against the archipelago.
Lula’s statement, which was met with applause from the audience, came in the context of his criticism of the stance of many world leaders who focus on waging war instead of prioritizing the fight against hunger, among the most pressing issues impacting humanity today.
For the head of state, hunger cannot be treated as a secondary matter, nor subordinated to ideological or political issues, dependent on the eventuality of surplus resources. He insisted that it must be addressed as a humanitarian priority and as a sacred right.
The Brazilian president also linked the persistence of this scourge to the history of exploitation and inequality in Latin America, recalling that when the region had gold and silver, “it was taken away,” and that for a long time its labor was exploited with low wages, which ultimately led to vast gaps in inequality and social injustice that are even more evident today.
According to Lula, as long as the poor remain invisible to bureaucratic machines and heads of state, the world will continue to be trapped in conflicts that divert resources from the essential task of guaranteeing food and dignity for all.
[ SOURCE: AGENCIA CUBANA DE NOTICIAS ]
