“We have countries like Haiti with 26% food inflation and we have other countries that are really off the charts even with food inflation,” said Lola Castro. WFP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC).
Negative trend
The latest data indicate that 9.7 million people in the 13 LAC countries where WFP operates are already extremely food insecure, up from 8.3 million at the end of 2021. “We are looking at about 14 million people according to the forecast if the crisis continues,” Ms. Castro said.
“This is not good and we are back to almost the highs we have had in time COVID-19when 17.2 million people were severely food insecure, at the height of the pandemic.
Ms. Castro told journalists in Geneva that fuel and energy prices are also “a big problem” for people who are less able to earn their own living. “We have seen the way in the last two years, it costs seven times more to ship a ton of food in our area. ”
Desperate Migrants
People’s daily lives have been severely degraded, leaving them with no choice but to leave their communities and head north, even if it means taking risks, the WFP official explained. their lives, the WFP official explained.
Communities of particular concern include Haitian migrants who traveled during the COVID-19 pandemic in search of work and shelter in Brazil and Chile.
“You are all watching the caravans, the caravans of migrants move and we used to talk about migration happening from north Central America, but Unfortunately, we’re talking about hemispheric migration now. We have the whole continent on the move. ”
Darien Gap is dangerous
One of the clearest signs of man’s despair is his willingness to risk his life across the Darien Gap, a particularly arduous and treacherous forest route in Central America that allows travel from the south of the continent to north.
“In 2020, 5,000 people have crossed the Darien Gap, migrating from South America into Central America, and you know what, in 2021, 151,000 people passedAnd this is 10 days of trekking, 10 days of crossing rivers, crossing mountains and people dying because this is one of the most dangerous forests in the world. ”
For these migrants, the reason why they are moving is simple, the WFP official explains: “They are leaving the communities where they live. they have lost everything because of the climate crisis, they have no food security, they are not able to feed their people and their families. ”
United Nations data indicates that of the 69 economies currently experiencing food, energy and financial shocks, 19 are in the Latin American and Caribbean regions.
This means that governments have gone to great lengths to maintain a social welfare safety net in Coronavirus The pandemic is currently struggling to maintain this level of support for populations.
