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Raúl meets with Pananamian President Martín Torrijos
GENERAL of the Army Raúl Castro
Ruz, second secretary of the Central Committee of
the Communist Party of Cuba and minister of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces, met last night with
Martín Torrijos Espino, president of the Republic of
Panama, who has been in our country on a working
visit since January 2.
 During
the meeting, which took place in the cordial and
friendly atmosphere that characterizes
Cuban-Panamanian relations, they discussed the
development of bilateral links between the two
countries, particularly the progress of Operation
Miracle in the sister nation. With the cooperation
of our country an Ophthalmological Center is to open
shortly in the Panamanian province of Veraguas.
Also present at the meeting on
the Cuban side were Carlos Lage Dávila, secretary of
the Executive Council of the Council of Ministers;
Fernando Remirez de Estenoz, member of the
Secretariat of the Central Committee of the
Communist Party of Cuba and head of its
International Relations Department; Felipe Pérez
Roque, minister of foreign affairs; Carlos Eloy
García Trápaga, Cuban ambassador in the Republic of
Panama; and Rogelio Sierra Díaz, Latin American and
Caribbean director of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs. The Panamanian side included Carlos
Vallerino, minister of economy and finance; Anel
Omar Rodríguez, Panamanian ambassador in Cuba; and
Efebo Díaz and Luis Gómez, presidential advisers.
OTHER ACTIVITIES
Torrijos also had a friendly
encounter with students from his country at the
Latin American School of Medicine. He described them
as “pioneers of the new hope.”
He told them that given the
enormous social debt existing in his country, future
doctors will have two principal responsibilities:
gratitude to Cuba and its government for the
opportunity offered to train here and, once
graduated, to return to their communities and work
with the people in most need.
More than 3,000 young people, 93
of them Panamanian, have already graduated from this
faculty, inaugurated by Fidel in November 1999, and
a further 10,000 from 28 countries are currently
studying there, stated the rector, Dr. Juan Carrizo.
He noted that 75-80% of
Panamanian students come from the worker and
campesino sectors, and mostly represent the Kuna,
Ngobe-Bugle, Embera and Gaobe ethnic communities.
In a simple ceremony, the
students presented Torrijos with a letter confirming
their commitment to work in Panama as doctors with a
great humane spirit, applying their knowledge to
preventative medicine and helping to raise the
population’s living standards and health.
As part of his agenda on this,
his fourth visit to the island, President Martín
Torrijos had separate meetings with Ricardo Alarcón,
president of the National Assembly; Fernando Remírez,
member of the Central Committee Secretariat; and
Ricardo Cabrisas, government minister.
Torrijos qualified those meetings
as fruitful and expressed his confidence that
cooperation would continue to advance.
He affirmed that the Cuban
solidarity expressed in Operation Miracle was of
great impact for Panamanians, 4,992 of whom have
undergone eye surgery in Cuba. (Elson Concepción
Pérez)
Translated by Granma International
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