AP
Thursday, November 08, 2007
HAVANA, Cuba (AP) - A United Nations food expert hailed Cuba as a world
model in feeding its population, some 18 years after the collapse of the
Soviet Bloc ravaged the island's economy and sparked widespread hunger.
Jean Ziegler, who has been the United Nations' independent investigator
on "the right to food" since 2000, spent 11 days in Cuba on a
fact-finding mission, meeting with top officials and chatting up
farmers, state managers and ordinary Cubans waiting in line for food
allotted by ration cards.
"We haven't seen even one malnourished person" - a rare feat in much of
poverty-stricken Latin America, Ziegler said Tuesday. "The right to
being fed is the priority, without a doubt."
Cuba is one of 32 countries that include the "right to food" in their
constitutions, and fewer still - including Brazil, Latin America's
largest economy - meet pledges to provide food to all their citizens, he
said.
Ziegler, who visited two prisons in Havana to ask inmates about their
daily diets, did not address human rights concerns over the arbitrary
imprisonment and alleged abuse of political prisoners and critics of the
island's one-party government.
Despite a 46-year US embargo against the communist-run island, Cuba has
found ways to ensure its population does not go hungry, Ziegler said.
"Cuba always invents an answer," he noted.
Widespread daily shortages continue to frustrate Cubans, and the
government blames those problems and most others on the embargo. Yet
since 2000, Cuba has been able to purchase food and agricultural
products from the US on a cash basis.
The island still struggles with major deficits in food production, and
relies too much on foreign imports, Ziegler said. But the related need
to improve production capacity has been addressed more openly since
July, when interim leader Raul Castro encouraged people to seek ways to
improve efficiency in farming and other sectors.
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