COPACABANA, BOLIVIA (PL)— A veritable fiesta of Latin American solidarity was the order of the day for the inhabitants on the border of Bolivia and Peru this Monday when President Evo Morales inaugurated the fourth Operation Miracle ophthalmologic center in Bolivia.

While other countries are dispatching armies to end human lives, Cuba has sent us help to save them, emphasized Morales in his inaugural address in which he also praised Cuban solidarity in the campaign to eradicate illiteracy.

He added that, learning from the Cuban lessons of solidarity, the center installed in the Copabacana municipal hospital will also provide attention to patients in the nearby Peruvian territory.

He stated that the operations performed by the Cuban doctors to restore their sight to patients would otherwise be inaccessible due to the high cost of private medicine.

Cuba, a country economically blockaded, is practicing solidarity more than any other country and is helping us to break the social blockade, he pointed out.

He noted that Cuban solidarity is not only to be found in Latin America, but also in Africa and other nations of the planet.

In another part of his address, he contrasted the spirit of external aid toward Bolivia with the conditions that the U.S. has placed on programs operating in Bolivia, including the eradication of the coca fields, which is unthinkable.

Morales also expressed his wonder at Cuban President Fidel Castro’s wisdom and detailed knowledge of medicine, comparable to that of the finest doctor in the world.

Peruvian nationalist presidential candidate Ollanta Humala, a special guest at the event, praised Operation Miracle and expressed his thanks for the offer of the new center’s facilities to attend to his compatriots.

He joined Cuban Ambassador Rafael Dausá in extolling the island’s help to Peruvian victims of the 1970 earthquake.

Humala also said that the eye operations were not a mater of ideology and called for a Latin American integration free of ideological and other types of discrimination.

Ambassador Dausá recounted Cuban medical cooperation with Bolivia and ratified the decision of his countries’ professionals to work for the Bolivian people and government for as long as necessary.