Cuba increases aid to Haiti

Ana Ivis Galán García

ON Wednesday morning, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla received his counterpart from the Republic of Suriname, Lygia Louise Irene Kraag-Keteldijk, who is on an official visit to our country.

As part of official talks between the two ministers, Rodríguez gave a detailed explanation of the situation of Cuban cooperation workers in the sister Republic of Haiti after the terrible earthquake that occurred on Tuesday.

In that context, he clarified that there are currently "403 Cuban cooperative personnel, 334 of whom are working in the heath sector as doctors and paramedics," in the devastated country. He said they had been able to confirm the status of all those working "within the city of Port-au-Prince. Only two of them received very slight injuries, and the others have confirmed that they are all right."

"We are verifying the situation and gathering complete information about cooperative workers in other parts of the country. We have been able to locate the majority of them and they are fine," he assured.

The minister added that victims have been receiving medical attention from the Cuban brigade since the earthquake struck. He noted that "they are now working in two campaign hospitals in our medical personnel’s accommodation facilities."

He said that plans are underway to more emergency aid to the sister Caribbean nation, consisting of "a quantity of medicine and heath materials. An additional number of doctors are to travel there."

"Our ambassador and other compañeros working in Port-au-Prince spent the entire night and early morning touring the city to contact our compatriots there because communication lines have collapsed. Equally, "the team from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is working tirelessly to coordinate the response from all of our institutions."

The Cuban foreign affairs minister reiterated Cuba’s disposition to participate in any CARICOM effort. "In this context we are in contact with the CARICOM mission and we will certainly work together there to provide assistance to the Haitian people."