Havana, November 14 (RHC)-- The President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Diaz-Canel, presided on Wednesday the main event for the twentieth anniversary of the creation of the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) in western Havana.

Speaking in the celebration, Minister of Public Health, José Ángel Portal Miranda, said that 29,749 doctors from 115 countries have graduated from its classrooms over the last two decades.

Portal recalled that on the occasion of the first graduation of this great project, the Historical Leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, said: ... "more than doctors, they will be jealous guardians of the most precious asset of human beings; apostles and creators of a more human world", a principle that has governed the work of this center ever since.

The minister also evoked that in 2014, when then UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon, visited ELAM, he praised the training of doctors in the Caribbean nation, which he saw in various communities, many of them forgotten, where they help save lives.

The official described as unacceptable the constant attack by the U.S. government that attempts to criminalize Cuban medical cooperation and seeks to denigrate the altruistic work that for almost six decades has been carried out by hundreds of thousands of men and women.

He assured that in spite of this, Cuban medical collaboration will remain and Cuba will continue to offer its experiences, specialized human resources and will keep its universities available for the training of professionals and technicians in the field of health, as well as the products of the medical-pharmaceutical and biotechnological industry to influence the achievement of universal health coverage.

On Behalf of the Public Health Ministry, Portal presented a recognition to ELAM for being one of the most beautiful internationalist experiences of Cuban revolutionary medicine, which exalts the greatness of its founder, solidarity champion Commander in Chief Fidel Castro.