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20261012 140000 UTC
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[00:00:38] Breaking news, we're going directly to the FAO with
[00:00:42] the President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz Canel, we hear:
[00:00:45] The FAO organizes, mobilizing the international
[00:00:50] and young people, that's what community to reflect and act on one of the
[00:00:52] most urgent challenges of our time,
[00:00:55] guaranteeing the human right to food.
[00:00:59] We live in a world beset by serious global problems, which
[00:01:03] nonetheless have unequal impacts at the
[00:01:07] territorial level. Armed conflicts, the
[00:01:10] increasingly severe effects of climate change, recurrent
[00:01:14] economic crises,
[00:01:17] 14.1% of geopolitical tensions and growing
[00:01:19] inequalities affect developing countries more
[00:01:23] intensely and painfully, where millions
[00:01:26] of people continue to suffer from hunger, food
[00:01:30] insecurity, and malnutrition.
[00:01:33] In the scenario described, public policies for the
[00:01:37] transformation of agrifood systems are
[00:01:41] not just a technical priority imposed by development.
[00:01:45] They demand, above all, an
[00:01:47] rebuild itself from ethical and political responsibility from all
[00:01:50] governments. For Cuba, which faces the
[00:01:54] accumulated effects of more than six decades of economic, commercial, and
[00:01:58] financial blockade by the government of the United
[00:02:01] States, a policy that severely
[00:02:03] limits access to
[00:02:06] necessary components to markets, technologies, financing,
[00:02:09] fuel, and essential supplies.
[00:02:13] These challenges take on a particularly complex
[00:02:16] dimension, to which since January of this
[00:02:22] we have begun to year, the imposition of a criminal energy blockade
[00:02:24] brutally impacts
[00:02:26] knowledge at the service of the national economy and the daily life of our
[00:02:30] people and people. Faced with these circumstances that
[00:02:33] directly affect agricultural production, food
[00:02:37] processing, refrigeration,
[00:02:39] transport, distribution, and logistics,
[00:02:43] Cuba has chosen to act, taking on each challenge
[00:02:46] as an opportunity to accelerate structural transformations
[00:02:49] that strengthen our
[00:02:52] resilience. We are promoting profound changes
[00:02:56] food security, derived from to transform food systems,
[00:02:58] strengthen food production, expand
[00:03:02] territorial development,
[00:03:05] 7.8% of innovation, and advance the energy transition of local food systems.
[00:03:09] Few nations face
[00:03:13] such complex challenges, persisting in the effort to continue
[00:03:16] advancing, even under extraordinarily
[00:03:19] adverse conditions.
[00:03:22] Today, I want to thank, on behalf of our people and government, the
[00:03:26] accompaniment of the FAO in these efforts,
[00:03:30] by mobilizing almost 100 million dollars in support of national
[00:03:34] challenges, providing resources,
[00:03:37] knowledge, assistance, and capacities to
[00:03:41] strengthen strategic sectors, promote
[00:03:44] local food systems, and increase
[00:03:47] resilience to climate change.
[00:03:50] Please accept our most sincere gratitude for this permanent,
[00:03:53] respectful, and
[00:03:56] supportive support. We also acknowledge the support of the
[00:03:59] FAO for the inclusion of our country
[00:04:02] in the global alliance against hunger and
[00:04:06] poverty, a platform that opens
[00:04:09] opportunities to mobilize resources, share
[00:04:12] knowledge, and build
[00:04:14] alliances. As part of this alliance, Cuba currently
[00:04:18] presents two preliminary plans of high social
[00:04:22] value added, designed to directly benefit the most
[00:04:26] vulnerable sectors of the nation. Both
[00:04:29] aim to strengthen food security
[00:04:33] as a fundamental pillar for development through
[00:04:36] inclusive and sustainable territorial
[00:04:39] solutions, which seek to protect families at
[00:04:42] greater risk, expand access
[00:04:45] to nutritious food,
[00:04:48] correspondent in Mexico, and consolidate resilient
[00:04:50] local systems. These initiatives confirm
[00:04:54] our proven willingness to advance with responsibility,
[00:04:57] creativity, and social commitment, even in
[00:05:01] the midst of the most complex
[00:05:03] circumstances. We also reaffirm
[00:05:07] our commitment to the Hand-in-Hand initiative, which promotes
[00:05:11] investments based on advanced geospatial
[00:05:14] models, market analysis, and strategic
[00:05:17] alliances to accelerate the transformation
[00:05:20] of agrifood systems.
[00:05:24] We also appreciate the opportunity to present, within
[00:05:28] the framework of this global forum, two new
[00:05:30] projects linked to productive chains of high strategic
[00:05:34] value for Cuba, such as coffee and honey.
[00:05:37] These sectors present opportunities for rural
[00:05:41] development, income generation,
[00:05:44] employment, environmental sustainability, and the
[00:05:48] strengthening of the livelihoods of thousands of Cuban
[00:05:51] families. Cuban coffee and honey are products with
[00:05:55] identity, tradition, and growth
[00:05:58] potential. Their strengthening contributes to
[00:06:01] revitalizing rural territories, improving
[00:06:04] climate resilience, and expanding export
[00:06:08] opportunities.
[00:06:10] The response to food
[00:06:13] challenges cannot be built from isolation;
[00:06:16] no country should face hunger, poverty, or the
[00:06:20] consequences of global crises alone. Today, more
[00:06:23] than ever, we need to strengthen multilateralism,
[00:06:26] defend the role of international organizations, and promote
[00:06:30] cooperation based on solidarity,
[00:06:33] respect, and shared responsibility.
[00:06:35] Esteemed colleagues, in the
[00:06:39] year of the centenary of the birth of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro,
[00:06:43] we remember his permanent defense of the right of all peoples to
[00:06:46] development, to food, to a
[00:06:50] dignified life. That legacy continues to inspire
[00:06:53] Cuba's efforts to build a more
[00:06:57] just and sustainable society. That legacy also sustains the
[00:07:01] will to continue working with the FAO
[00:07:04] to advance towards more resilient, inclusive,
[00:07:07] and sustainable food
[00:07:10] systems. Access to food cannot be a privilege; it
[00:07:14] must be a right for all human beings. Thank
[00:07:17] you very much.
[00:07:22] And through videoconference at the forum, precisely,
[00:07:26] at the world forum, we were listening to
[00:07:30] Miguel Díaz Canel, the leader Miguel Díaz Canel, who
[00:07:34] said that food cannot be a privilege, but
[00:07:38] rather a right. He also spoke about the Cuban
[00:07:43] the sanctions by the United States that are
[00:07:46] precisely harming the largest
[00:07:49] of the Antilles. Let's remember that in Rome, Italy, this
[00:07:53] world food forum, FAO
[00:07:56] 2026, started, where various political leaders, delegates,
[00:07:59] and scientists are debating how to transform agrifood
[00:08:03] systems in the face of the difficulties faced by
[00:08:08] the climate crisis, rising prices, and also the war
[00:08:12] conflicts. And in this context, we heard
[00:08:15] precisely the Cuban leader Miguel
[00:08:18] Díaz Canel. Thank you very much for joining us, we
[00:08:22] will continue with more later.
[00:15:48] interim president of Elsis Rodríguez, Joan Manuel
[00:15:51] Gonzálvez and his first
[00:15:54] lady.
[00:15:57] Luis Abinader, President of the Dominican Republic, I want
[00:16:00] to take this opportunity to congratulate this brotherly
[00:16:04] neighboring country for the extraordinary achievements
[00:16:07] made in the eradication
[00:16:10] of hunger and poverty.
[00:16:13] Citizen María José Pinto, Vice President of the
[00:16:17] Republic of Ecuador, heads of
[00:16:20] delegations, ambassadors and ambassadors before
[00:16:24] this organization, citizen
[00:16:26] director. The Bolivarian Republic of
[00:16:29] Venezuela arrives at this world
[00:16:33] food forum with a
[00:16:36] conviction.
[00:16:38] Food is an inalienable
[00:16:41] right, directly linked to
[00:16:44] life, dignity, and the comprehensive
[00:16:48] development of people. Guaranteeing that
[00:16:51] right requires inclusive
[00:16:55] and sustained public policies, but
[00:16:59] it also requires production,
[00:17:02] investment, science, technology,
[00:17:05] financing, and
[00:17:08] it requires peace and an international
[00:17:11] system capable of cooperating,
[00:17:14] even above our differences.
[00:17:17] We come from a country that has learned to
[00:17:21] rise, to
[00:17:24] its own capabilities and
[00:17:27] to
[00:17:30] look forward with confidence and
[00:17:33] hope, a country that seeks
[00:17:37] to do so. I want to take this opportunity to
[00:17:41] thank this organization,
[00:17:44] I want to take this opportunity to
[00:17:47] thank this organization, the World
[00:17:50] Food Program, for the support that God
[00:17:54] gives. This calls us to place
[00:17:57] science, technology, innovation, investment, and
[00:18:00] traditional
[00:18:03] people, to transform our
[00:18:07] system, agrifood problems, and above all,
[00:18:10] to ensure that solutions effectively
[00:18:13] reach producers,
[00:18:17] those who still face hunger and
[00:18:20] malnutrition. Excellencies,
[00:18:23] director, the current situation challenges
[00:18:27] us. Leaders have already referred
[00:18:30] to the fact that despite recent advances,
[00:18:34] 645 million people continue
[00:18:37] to suffer from hunger. This figure is equivalent to
[00:18:43] the world's population, but also more than
[00:18:47] 2 billion face some degree of food
[00:18:50] insecurity, and thousands of millions of
[00:18:53] people still cannot economically
[00:18:56] access a healthy
[00:18:59] diet. It is estimated that hunger affected
[00:19:02] the world in 2025,
[00:19:06] throwing for the first time in the same year in
[00:19:10] history, two simultaneous
[00:19:12] famines, Gaza Strip and regions
[00:19:15] of Sudan.
[00:19:17] We also live with a paradox that is difficult to
[00:19:21] accept. Humanity today has productive,
[00:19:24] scientific, and technological capabilities,
[00:19:27] as never before known.
[00:19:30] However, simultaneously,
[00:19:33] while millions of people lack
[00:19:37] sufficient food, a considerable proportion of the
[00:19:40] food we produce is lost after harvest
[00:19:43] or ends up being wasted.
[00:19:47] Therefore, we must improve storage
[00:19:51] and transport, guarantee access to
[00:19:54] food, protect our soils and
[00:19:58] our waters, preserve biodiversity, and
[00:20:02] build agrifood systems
[00:20:04] capable of resisting the increasing effects of the
[00:20:08] climate crisis, including
[00:20:11] the impacts of the El Niño phenomenon that today affects
[00:20:15] a good part of our developing countries, including
[00:20:18] Venezuela, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, as
[00:20:22] other authorities have stated. The
[00:20:25] agricultural calendar is no longer dictated by tradition,
[00:20:29] but by the climate crisis. Therefore,
[00:20:32] financing is required for agricultural
[00:20:35] adaptation, early warning systems, and productive
[00:20:38] empowerment driven by artificial intelligence.
[00:20:42] Distinguished director,
[00:20:46] excellencies, food should never
[00:20:50] become an instrument of political
[00:20:54] pressure or confrontation.
[00:20:56] Wherever differences exist between
[00:20:59] states, dialogue and diplomacy must
[00:21:03] prevail, and wherever hunger
[00:21:06] exists, our common responsibility must
[00:21:09] be to find solutions. Therefore,
[00:21:12] from this platform, we insist
[00:21:16] on our call to end the application
[00:21:18] of measures that, outside international law, have
[00:21:22] negative implications
[00:21:25] for the realization of the right to food.
[00:21:28] Venezuela
[00:21:32] knows both the advances and setbacks in the
[00:21:36] fight against hunger. Our country made significant
[00:21:40] progress during the first decades of this century,
[00:21:43] recognized by this very organization. In
[00:21:47] 2013, the FAO counted
[00:21:51] Venezuela among the countries that had met
[00:21:54] international goals for hunger reduction.
[00:21:57] Venezuela had gone from 2.8 million
[00:22:00] people in a state of undernourishment,
[00:22:03] equivalent to
[00:22:07] the population in 1990,
[00:22:10] to less than 5%.
[00:22:13] Unfortunately, a very
[00:22:17] difficult period followed. Venezuela
[00:22:20] faced a profound internal political
[00:22:24] confrontation that caused a sharp
[00:22:26] contraction of our economy, a
[00:22:29] situation that worsened from 2017
[00:22:32] with the progressive imposition of unilateral
[00:22:36] coercive measures. These measures, which in the
[00:22:40] agrifood sector reached 16%,
[00:22:43] affected access to financing for
[00:22:47] agricultural inputs,
[00:22:51] technologies, spare parts, equipment, and various
[00:22:56] keep our productive chains
[00:22:58] functioning. Venezuela then
[00:23:02] experienced a severe food supply
[00:23:05] crisis that affected all of
[00:23:08] society, but
[00:23:12] reverse that reality. National
[00:23:15] dialogue with opposition factors, as
[00:23:19] well as diplomatic dialogue with the United
[00:23:22] States of America, has added the necessary
[00:23:25] political stability to produce and
[00:23:28] grow. A few weeks ago, I announced
[00:23:32] to the United Nations General Assembly that
[00:23:35] Venezuela has embarked on an orderly,
[00:23:39] institutional, and verifiable
[00:23:42] transformation process. You might ask what
[00:23:45] this has to do with agriculture, with
[00:23:48] food, with science.
[00:23:50] It has everything to do with it. That path, which
[00:23:54] I have assumed with full conviction,
[00:23:56] is the basis upon which we will build
[00:23:59] a new agrifood policy,
[00:24:02] because no modern food system thrives
[00:24:06] without legal certainty over land and
[00:24:09] property, so that those who work the land can
[00:24:12] invest in it with certainty.
[00:24:16] Venezuela is part of the countries
[00:24:20] in the region that has advanced the most
[00:24:23] recently in the reduction of undernourishment.
[00:24:26] The indicators show a
[00:24:28] sustained reduction in the prevalence of undernourishment
[00:24:32] which reached 5.3%
[00:24:35] in
[00:24:37] 2025, according to figures from this
[00:24:40] organization, and which this year is already
[00:24:44] 3%. This recovery is beginning to be reflected
[00:24:48] there also where it matters most: among our boys
[00:24:52] and girls, in children under 5 years
[00:24:55] old, acute malnutrition decreased
[00:24:58] from 14.8% in 2019 to
[00:25:02] 1.3% in 2025.
[00:25:06] This nutritional recovery is also
[00:25:10] reflected in other indicators:
[00:25:13] exclusive breastfeeding
[00:25:16] today reaches 73.
[00:25:20] 7%, being one of the highest values
[00:25:24] in our region.
[00:25:27] Thus, Venezuela has proven
[00:25:30] experience in the eradication of hunger, as
[00:25:34] recognized by the FAO. We are very
[00:25:37] close to achieving it again, with more
[00:25:40] robust social feeding programs and with a
[00:25:44] great national effort, I want to announce
[00:25:48] from this platform the Venezuela Food
[00:25:52] Plan to integrate all food
[00:25:55] production processes into the
[00:25:58] achievement of this supreme
[00:26:00] objective.
[00:26:03] Also, to further refine this
[00:26:07] achievement, I announce that I will present
[00:26:10] to the Venezuelan parliament in the coming
[00:26:14] days a new law for the local
[00:26:17] economy, which will allow, together with the communal
[00:26:21] economy, community economy and entrepreneurship
[00:26:24] economy, the integration productive chain for
[00:26:28] food production with the great agri-food industry.
[00:26:32] All of us, without
[00:26:35] exception, will contribute to
[00:26:38] this higher
[00:26:42] goal, but the
[00:26:45] recovery is not limited to the supply that
[00:26:49] today in Venezuela is full. The
[00:26:52] utilization of our agro-industrial
[00:26:55] capacity went from 66%
[00:26:59] in 2021 to 78%
[00:27:03] in 2022, accompanied by new productive alliances and a
[00:27:06] progressive substitution of imports. On
[00:27:10] the other hand, our social
[00:27:14] protection policy seeks to ensure
[00:27:17] that this recovery of boys and girls in public schools
[00:27:20] and our food programs
[00:27:23] cover more than 5 million families in
[00:27:26] Venezuela. These advances allow
[00:27:30] us to look forward with... but not with
[00:27:34] self-satisfaction, because behind every
[00:27:38] percentage there is a
[00:27:40] person, and as long as there is a family that
[00:27:44] faces food insecurity, a girl, a boy who cannot
[00:27:48] fully develop their capabilities for nutritional
[00:27:51] reasons, or a community whose
[00:27:54] access to food is vulnerable, our
[00:27:58] task will remain unfinished. That
[00:28:01] is why... Venezuela does not come to Rome
[00:28:05] only to explain how much it has advanced, we also
[00:28:08] come to share how we intend to close the remaining
[00:28:12] gap and move decisively towards the
[00:28:15] fulfillment of the second sustainable development
[00:28:18] goal, zero hunger. Our
[00:28:21] aspiration is clear: that Venezuela will once
[00:28:24] again reach levels compatible
[00:28:27] with zero hunger before the
[00:28:29] year 2030.
[00:28:33] Director. Excellencies,
[00:28:36] Venezuela, as everyone knows, possesses
[00:28:39] important energy strengths. Our
[00:28:42] aspiration is to use these
[00:28:45] strengths to build the productive
[00:28:48] capacities of the future. We want
[00:28:51] to convert part of our energy revenue into permanent
[00:28:54] productive capacity. Energy wealth can and must
[00:28:57] become a lever to guarantee
[00:29:01] agricultural production, so that people can afford quality
[00:29:04] food and the processes of nature are
[00:29:07] respected through regenerative
[00:29:10] agriculture. How can we think
[00:29:14] and believe that
[00:29:17] we are going to guarantee and nourish the future, guarantee the food
[00:29:21] processes of the future, if we
[00:29:23] degrade our soils and our watersheds?
[00:29:26] Ultimately, it is about
[00:29:30] moving forward in addressing immediate needs
[00:29:33] towards sustainable development, from
[00:29:36] recovery to transformation, and for
[00:29:39] that we need a truly
[00:29:43] inclusive multilateralism, capable of
[00:29:45] accompanying countries, not only in their emergencies,
[00:29:49] but also in the construction of their
[00:29:52] future. Excellencies, this
[00:29:55] transformation has a human face, which is why we are filled
[00:29:58] with pride that within the framework of the International Year of Women,
[00:30:03] the FAO has recognized our
[00:30:07] Maria.