Guatemala City, November 5 (RHC) -- The professionals of the Cuban medical brigade in Guatemala celebrate this Sunday the 25th anniversary of providing health and sowing love in the most intricate, poor and needy communities of that nation.

The ambassador of the Caribbean island in the land of the quetzal, Nazario Fernández, described the date as an important event and called to dedicate it to its main architect, the Commander in Chief of the Revolution Fidel Castro.

"It was he who made the decision at that tragic moment in Central America to quickly send a contingent of doctors to save lives, when Hurricane Mitch devastated the region," he recalled in an emotional act organized in the eastern department of Jutiapa.

Among those present, he highlighted the Camagüeyan collaborator Armando Rodríguez, a specialist in General Comprehensive Medicine, who was part of the first group that started the cooperation here, and later carried out missions in Venezuela, Seychelles Islands, Brazil and returned two and a half years ago to Guatemala.
The diplomatic representative of Cuba in this country underlined the love for others, the feeling of dedication practiced day by day by all the professionals in white coats.
The island also benefits from the solidarity of the people of Guatemala, considered Fernandez, for whom the doctors grow with the nobility of this brotherly people, with the contact with its humble, friendly, grateful people, he remarked.

Before the brigades of Jutiapa and Jalapa, local health authorities and Guatemalan graduates of the Latin American School of Medicine of Havana, the general coordinator Mariheta Cutiño detailed the milestones of the collaboration.

The 440 professionals are located in 16 of 22 departments, 107 municipalities out of 340, in 16 hospitals, 12 maternal and child comprehensive care centers, 94 posts, 47 centers, 12 health areas, 33 permanent care units and four ophthalmological centers, she described.

"We are here, and also present today in 59 other states, because we were trained in the principle of solidarity, which is in our ethics, in our behavior," Cutiño said.
She thanked Guatemala for having been with Cuba during these 25 years, for having allowed us to be part of the work teams, of their families and for what they have taught us, she emphasized.

She ratified the moral commitment to continue contributing to the health of the people of the world and, of course, of the people of El Chapín.

She also thanked everyone and urged to continue living the solidarity between Cuba and Guatemala.

From Baja Verapaz or Santa Rosa, Escuintla, Cobán, Nebaj, Totonicapán, San Marcos, the distant and jungle Petén, messages on social networks alluding to the anniversary stand out.

The members of the Milagro mission of the capital municipality of Villa Nueva, who reinforced the Cuban Medical Brigade in 2006, placed a wreath in front of the monument to José Martí, in the central avenue Las Américas.

The devastating passage of Hurricane Mitch through Central America brought on November 5 the precursors of this history of altruistic and humanist cooperation between two brotherly peoples. (Source:PL)