New York, August 25, 2026.— Cuba alerted the United Nations Security Council about the worsening of global food crises as a consequence of conflicts, structural inequalities, and an unjust international order, and denounced the direct impact of the tightening of the United States blockade on the Cuban people's access to food, fuel, and other essential goods.
During the high-level open debate entitled "Food Under Fire: The Role of the Security Council in Mitigating Global and Local Food Crises," the Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, Ambassador Ernesto Soberón Guzmán, warned that, with only four years remaining before the deadline for achieving the 2030 Agenda, the world remains far from reaching the Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger. He noted that approximately 645 million people suffered from chronic malnutrition in 2025, while Official Development Assistance is declining and global military spending has reached a record $2.9 trillion.
The Cuban diplomat called for redirecting the vast resources allocated to the arms race toward development and stressed the need to address the root causes of conflicts, including inequalities inherited from colonialism, the consequences of neoliberalism, foreign occupation, and policies of domination. He also demanded that the Security Council fully comply with its mandate, in strict adherence to the Charter of the United Nations and without double standards.
Soberón Guzmán denounced in particular the grave situation of the Palestinian people, especially women and children, subjected to hunger as a consequence of Israel's actions and the obstruction of humanitarian aid, including food supplies. He noted that these practices are part of a systematic policy of occupation and collective punishment, and denounced the military, political, diplomatic, and financial support of the United States government for Israel. He also drew attention to the humanitarian needs of the Sahrawi people, including their access to safe food, and called for greater international cooperation and support.
The Permanent Representative denounced that Cuba faces a multidimensional war waged by the United States government, whose economic, commercial, and financial blockade has been reinforced to extreme levels through a brutal energy embargo of more than six months and other unilateral coercive measures. He explained that these actions hinder access to fuel and the arrival of shipping lines and containers, with serious consequences for the availability of food, medicine, fertilizers, machinery, and agricultural inputs, as well as for electricity generation, transportation, supply chains, and the operation of hospitals and other essential services. He condemned this policy as collective punishment against the Cuban people and reiterated his denunciation of the threats of direct military aggression from the United States.
In closing, Soberón Guzmán evoked the historic warning of Commander-in-Chief Fidel Castro Ruz during the 1996 World Food Summit: "The bells that toll today for those who die of hunger every day will toll tomorrow for all of humanity if it did not want to, did not know how to, or could not be wise enough to save itself."
At the same time, he reaffirmed that the construction of a new world order based on justice, equity, and peace can no longer be postponed, and called for translating the collective promise to leave no one behind into action.
