Journal of Haiti and the Americas

Cuba and the war in Ukraine: what impact on the plates?

Audio 7:30 p.m.

On a street in Havana, Cuba.

(Illustrative image).

© Ramon Espinosa/AP Photo

By: Mikael Ponge

2 mins

While a first ship loaded with grain left the port of Odessa on August 1, 2022, wheat has become a strategic issue since the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Especially for a country like Cuba, a big consumer but which does not produce cereals.

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The specter of the food crisis returned with the Russian invasion of Ukraine earlier this year.

This reality is all the more glaring for countries whose food security for their population depends on their supply of cereals.

This is the case of Cuba, which imports

"70% of what it consumes", 

underlines Jérémy Denieulle, doctoral student at the University of Reims Champagne-Ardenne, and author of "Geopolitics of Cuba" (ed. L'Harmattan) .

“In 2020, the Castro island imported 900 million dollars worth of cereals;

since 2021, prices have increased by 35% and the Ukrainian war has added to this additional pressure on the island which is already in chronic lack of foreign currency

 ".

So, how has Cuba, a country that does not produce wheat, although it is a cereal massively consumed by Cubans, been impacted by the first six months of war in Ukraine?

This is our file of the day.

United States: disappearance of Bob Russell and Nichelle Nichols

He was for his family "the most prolific winner in the history of American sport" and for former President Barack Obama "a giant": Bill Russell, crowned eleven-time NBA champion with the Celtics and defender of civil rights, is died Sunday, July 31, 2022. His record is impressive and will probably never be equaled: in thirteen seasons in the NBA, all under the green jersey of the Boston Celtics, Russell won eleven league titles, a record that still stands, including eight in a row from 1959 to 1966. In 1963, he participated in Martin Luther King's March on Washington.

The pastor who convinced Nichelle Nichols not to give up her role as Lt. Uhura in the

Star Trek series

.

The African-American actress passed away this weekend at the age of 89.

We owe him one of the first interracial kisses in the history of American television.

Haiti: an AlterPresse journalist in the hands of gangs

Journalist Edner Décime, from

AlterPresse

was kidnapped on Sunday July 17, 2022, in Delmas, on the northeastern outskirts of Port-au-Prince, during a collective abduction.

“Fifteen days of silence and inaction from the authorities also since,”

writes AlterPresse.

“Cruelly deprived of his freedom for two weeks, Edner Décime is terribly missed by his family, devastated and ordered to pay a large ransom.

With each passing hour, his turmoil increases, while the kidnappers do not cease to increase their psychological pressure

 , ”we can read on the site of the online media.

And on the front page of the Journal de la 1ère

The Rémire-Montjoly Penitentiary Center, in French Guiana, in the front runners of the worst French prisons.

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