THE Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) is the realization of Fidel’s ideas, an expression of his concept of human beings and of the world, of the principles that sustain a genuine revolution, highlighted Dr. José Ramón Balaguer Cabrera, minister of public health, in the event commemorating the institution’s 10th anniversary, on November 15, in its Plaza de las Naciones.

He affirmed that the students at the School, in their integration, constitute a reflection of what humanity needs: that sentiment which is rooted and strengthened when relations among them demonstrate that there are no differences. They are the same human beings with the same destiny, needs and objectives, with the same search for a better future.
The event was presided over by First Vice President José Ramón Machado Ventura who received, for Fidel, a diploma of recognition for having conceived of and made a school of solidarity, fraternity and justice a reality. He likewise received one for President Raúl Castro Ruz.
Others were presented to José Miyar Barruecos, José Ramón Balaguer and ELAM Rector Juan Carrizo Estévez.
The public health minister had words of praise for the school’s staff and workers who, he stated, could demonstrate a beautiful history at a time in which processes of great significance are occurring in Latin America in the struggle to attain a better world for our peoples, in the face of the empire that is attempting to steal the future.
Both Balaguer and Carrizo communicated a qualitative and quantitative view of ELAM’s 10 years of existence, during which 7,256 doctors from 30 countries have been trained for a mission well defined by its creator: the training of comprehensive general doctors directed toward primary health care as the fundamental scenario of their professional conduct, and at a high scientific-technical, humanist, ethical level of solidarity, capable of acting in their environment in accordance with regional health needs, as a contribution to sustainable human development.
The current intake at ELAM totals 21,359 students, including 12,017 on the new training program for Latin American doctors, distributed in the country’s medical science universities and faculties, the ELAM headquarters and the Caribbean Faculty in Santiago de Cuba, and in which 100 countries are represented.
The majority of students are from modest backgrounds, the sons and daughters of workers and campesinos, some from very poor families and remote communities of different original and ethnic peoples.
With the emergence of ALBA as a process of integration and cooperation among our peoples, Venezuela has created an ELAM with a student intake from different countries. More than 25,000 Venezuelan students are being trained with the direct participation of our professors in every teaching scenario where those students are to be found, including within the Barrio Adentro program in that country.
Dr. Carrizo stressed that the fundamental characteristic of these doctors trained in Cuba is the development of professional ethical values, internationalist and cooperative in nature, and a high level of human sensibility, linked to a strong scientific-technical base.
"Thank you, comandante," Carrizo said, "for your lesson in humanism, for your confidence in that a better world is possible," finally endorsing the graduates, students, family members and peoples benefiting from this noble peace project with justice as "our Nobel of hope."
Alihuen Antileo García, a Mapuche from Chile and president of the ELAM Student Body, and Dr. Carlos Flores García, a Guatemalan from the first ELAM graduation in 2005, also spoke at the event.
Alihuen expressed his conviction that the ELAM road is, "Medicine in love with the art of prevention and cure," not that of checkbook doctors trained within capitalism, and affirmed that "the sons and daughters of excluded humanity are being educated no more and no less than in Cuba."
Dr. Flores reflected that while the United States is maintaining a School of the Americas in our land, from which hundreds of soldiers graduate for repressive armies in Latin America, and is opening military bases, the thousands of doctors who have already graduated from ELAM "are going about saving lives, opening posts and health centers." For that reason, "on a day like today I exhort the president of that nation to follow Cuba’s example. Found schools of medicine, Mr. President, help us in this region to build knowledge!"
Also present were other members of the Political Bureau and Secretariat, Party and state leaders, and those of student organizations and representatives of the diplomatic corps.