PRESS RELEASE
United Nations To Convene Emergency Session To Debate Global Food and Fuel Crisis
June 30, 2008 (EIRNS)—Speaking in Villahermosa, Mexico on June 28, the President of El Salvador, Elias Antonio Saca, announced that UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon intends to convene an emergency session on the global food and fuel crisis, acting on the request first made to him at the June 3-5 conference of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in Rome.
The United Nations "is looking at a date. It could be before the [General Assembly] session, but hopefully it won't be too late, where the price of a barrel of oil will be at $200," Saca said. It was the President of the Dominican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, who approached the Secretary General with the proposal in Rome on behalf of the heads of state of the Central American Integration System (SICA). Saca reported that India, Mexico and Brazil also firmly back the idea.
Members of SICA just concluded a meeting in El Salvador this past weekend, at which they discussed details of the emergency plan of the Central American Agricultural Council (CAC) to increase production of basic grains in Central America. Immediately, this plan envisions providing seeds and fertilizer to farmers, strengthening technical assistance (both public and private), creating cheap credit programs, and leasing of land. Also discussed were establishing purchasing agreements, joint purchase of fertilizers, and providing silos for storage.
Just prior to the SICA conference, some of the same heads of state attended the X Summit of Dialogue and Coordination Mechanisms in Villahermosa, Mexico. Saca and others warned that the global financial crisis, and "deceleration" of the U.S. economy, threatened the peace and stability of Central America, whose small economies and impoverished populations, they said, cannot withstand the effects of that crisis. Unfortunately, Saca, along with the Mexican and Colombian Presidents, wholeheartedly embraced biofuels as a sane solution for the energy crisis.
