CUBA, February 18, 2009. "Latin America is experiencing its best moments. We now have better opportunities, and every country on our continent is finding its own model for escaping poverty, misery and slavery." That was the affirmation of President Álvaro Colom Caballeros of Guatemala during a meeting at the Gustavo Aldereguía Lima University Hospital with a group of young people from his country who are studying medicine in several institutions in this province: the Faculty of Medical Sciences, the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM) and the Universalization program, living with local families. After watching a performance of a typical Guatemalan dance based on a Maya legend and thanking Cuba for its solidarity, Colom said that fifteen years ago it would have been difficult to imagine that 178 Guatemalans would be training as doctors in Cienfuegos today. One very emotional moment was the president’s conversation with Gabriela Ordúñez, a Guatemalan student in her fourth year of medical school, who presented Colom with a doctor’s coat, stethoscope and blood-pressure cuff, attributes of the world’s most humane profession. Colom Caballeros, accompanied by Yadira García Vera, Political Bureau member and minister of basic industry; José Ramón Monteagudo Ruiz, first secretary of the Party in the province; Yiliam Jiménez Expósito, deputy foreign minister for cooperation, and other authorities, also toured the Camilo Cienfuegos Oil Refinery. At the refinery, Raúl Pérez de Prado, deputy general director of PDV-CUPET, a Cuban/Venezuelan joint enterprise, explained the plant’s technical characteristics after it was reopened and modernized thanks to agreements under the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) bloc. The visitors were told that after beginning operations on December 21, 2007, the plant had processed more than 24 million barrels of crude oil to date, very efficiently. The visitors also toured a residential neighborhood called Simón Bolívar, comprising 107 "petro-houses" (built with PVC). Rolando Díaz González, president of the Provincial Assembly of People’s Power, explained the new construction technology using polyvinyl chloride (PVC), and noted that the country’s first factory for this type of housing was being built nearby. The tour ended at the T-15 organoponic garden, designated a national reference point for urban agriculture. Led by Manuel Rodríguez Oquendo, a National Hero of Labor, the staff last year produced more than 18 kg of vegetables and produce for every square meter of land. (Cubaminrex- Granma Internacional) |