United Nations, March 12 (RHC)-- Cuba briefed the UN Security Council on the negative impact of the U.S. blockade on food security issues in that nation, right in the middle of the crisis caused by Covid-19.

According to the island's permanent representative to the United Nations, Pedro Luis Pedroso,  his country is now facing enormous challenges imposed by that siege, which has intensified as never before in the last four years.

This in the midst of the pandemic and together with a policy of unprecedented hostility, which affects areas such as food security, the text stressed.

For example, the statement refers to how from April 2019 to March 2020 alone, damages of approximately 428 million 894 thousand 637 dollars in the area of food were accounted for.

These damages would have been avoided if Cuban companies had access to the U.S. market without unfair and illegitimate restrictions, the text highlighted.

It also highlights the lack of financing from U.S. banks and the international credit system due to the so-called country risk.

Cuba cannot make payments in U.S. dollars to third parties, all of which makes its normal access to international markets for acquiring food and necessities more expensive and difficult, the text details.

It also illustrates the heartbreaking situation in the world, where almost 690 million people suffer from hunger.

Ambassador Pedroso added that the persistence of an unjust and unsustainable international order, burdened by decades of application of savage neoliberalism, are the foundations of the exponential growth of poverty, exclusion, hunger, and food insecurity.