Globally, strategies to guarantee food security continue to be generated despite the prospect of lower economic growth and threats related to climate variability and adverse events to agricultural productivity. Similarly, Latin America and the Caribbean face this immense challenge despite the productive potential of certain countries, suffering the costs of a high dependence on imported goods in the food chain, especially in its first links related to agricultural activities. In this way, it is pertinent to study a series of variables of the national environment, which have not been worked on previous research, linked to international food trade companies and the agribusiness sector. In this regard, the research studied the impact of food imports on food security in the region, in the thirteen selected countries, also analyzing the relationship between the main indicators of agriculture and rural development and the depth of the food deficit in the region. This approach was developed through the study of panel data of the following variables: depth of food deficit (PDA); imports (AI) and food exports (EA); exports of raw materials for agricultural activity with respect to imports (EMPA); contribution of agricultural GDP in the national total (VR); GDP per capita (PPC); harvest index (CI), aninal production (IPA) and food (IPAL); jobs in agriculture (ESA); and rural people with electricity service (AE). Therefore, the general objective of the research was to assess the influence of food imports on the widening of the food gap in Latin America and the Caribbean between 1992 and 2016.
