Havana, April 19 (RHC)— Three Cuban doctors working in Ecuador lost their lives during the earthquake that hit coastal areas in the provinces of Esmeralda and Manabi.

The bodies of 46-year old Bárbara Caridad Cruz Ruiz; Leonardo Ortiz Estrada, 53, and Eric Omar Pérez de Alejo Quesada, 42, all hailing from Villa Clara, in central Cuba, were recovered from the debris of a fallen building at Playa Pedernales, and await transfer to Cuba.

The rest of the Cuban medical brigade in Ecuador, which is made up of some 700 experts, continue to carry out their services in that sister nation, now assisted by an additional contingent of 53 health professionals of the Henry Reeve International Medical Brigade, specialized in epidemics and disaster situations and who traveled to Ecuador from Havana on Sunday.