The face of Cuban surgeon Julio Durán shone when at a meeting in the Mexican state of Campeche of high authorities of his country and Cuba, his performance in the local hospital was praised, when he successfully performed an emergency cesarean section.

By Roberto Morejón

The face of Cuban surgeon Julio Durán shone when at a meeting in the Mexican state of Campeche of high authorities of his country and Cuba, his performance in the local hospital was praised, when he successfully performed an emergency cesarean section.

Durán, who performed a delicate surgery when he was the only specialist in the region, was praised at an event headed by the presidents of Mexico, Andrés López Obrador, and Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, on an official visit to the sister country.

Actions such as those of the surgeon in question are reiterated by the more than 600 collaborators located in 12 states.

The Mexican and Cuban delegations contributed to extolling the good results of the agreement that made this performance possible.

The professionals in white coats have attended almost 168 thousand patients since last August and performed more than seven thousand surgeries.

They stay in large hospitals and in others in remote communities, where many times their arrival represented the first time there was a specialist.

All of them attend to people who cannot access private services and lack insurance, thanks to a plan of President López Obrador.

Both the Mexican leader and President Díaz-Canel praised the doctors for services that represent, according to the newspaper La Jornada, a pillar in the progress towards the universalization of healthcare in Mexico.

Although health is the outstanding aspect of the new stage of the ties between both nations, the courageous and decisive position of the Mexican president in relation to the attempt to asphyxiate Cuba also stands out.

López Obrador, who considers the model of relations in the region to be exhausted, said he is willing to lead a movement of international unity in defense of what he calls the independence and sovereignty of José Martí's homeland.

The emphasis is clear, the lifting of the U.S. blockade of Cuba, since, as he pointed out, after the votes in the UN General Assembly in rejection of the siege, nothing happens.

The previous initiative was complemented by Foreign Minister Marcelo Ebrard when he called for the exclusion of Cuba from the unilateral US list of countries that, according to the inventory, sponsor terrorism.

The gesture of the Mexican authorities inspires deep gratitude from the Cubans, a feeling that can be materialized in many ways, among them the very professional and altruistic contribution of the more than 600 doctors who have been working in Cuba for more than a decade.