GUATEMALA CITY, January 11.-The Order of Quetzal, the highest distinction of the State of Guatemala conceded to the Cuban Medical Brigade working here, is a recognition of the internationalist solidarity of the island’s Revolution, President Alfonso Portillo affirmed today.

Speaking exclusively to Prensa Latina, the Guatemalan leader stated that the decoration awarded last night to the group of 527 health professionals undertaking humanitarian labors in this country was well merited.

The Order, conferred in the Official grade, was presented as a tribute to the 1,700-plus Cuban medical personnel who have offered their services in remote areas of this nation since the Havana government responded to an appeal for aid in the wake of the devastation of Hurricane Mitch, which passed through Central America in November 1998.

According to Portillo, who terminates his mandate on Wednesday, conceding the distinction to what he qualified as the heroic Cuban medical brigade in his final act of decoration as president represented various things.

“First, a recognition of that great effort by the people and government of Cuba to solve one of the greatest needs of all the peoples: health; and second, a recognition of that internationalist solidarity that Cuba has demonstrated over the years and which I have shared all my life,” he emphasized.

“I didn’t want to leave the presidency without decorating this heroic brigade of Cuban doctors, an expression of the people of Cuba, the solidarity and the love of Cubans, that internationalism of the Cubans, without decorating it with the highest distinction of the State of Guatemala,” the head of state affirmed.

He added that another reason for such a merit is the debt of gratitude that in his personal capacity he has with the island’s government “for its solidarity with Central America and, above all, with Guatemala, at moments of great adversities,” such as the disaster caused by Mitch.

Thanks and acknowledgement were also directed to the doctors and other health workers who, as Portillo stated to PL, “have played with their lives in saving lives for Guatemala.”

In that context, he highlighted the dedication to their work, humanism and valor of those cooperating, as “they have suffered threats, neglect, lack of understanding and still continue here, confirming the friendship between our two peoples.”

According to information from the Cuban medical brigade, in the five years working in remote communities in Guatemala, the health teams have managed to reduce the infant mortality rate from 40.2 to 13.8 per thousand live births, and the maternal mortality rate of 400 - according to 1998 statistics - to 90.9 per 100,000 births in the current period.