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Cuban Humanitarian Policy Highlighted in Canada.

CUBA, October 8, 2010.-  John Kirk, a Canadian specialist on Cuban issues, highlighted on Thursday in Toronto that the island’s humanitarian assistance to dozens of countries has been a cornerstone in its international stance.
 
During the panel “Cuban Foreign Policy” carried out at the 29th Congress of the Latin American Studies Association (LASA 2010), the academician recalled that internationalism has been a practice of the Revolution since its early days, since in 1960 it sent a mission to Valdivia, Chile, following a devastating earthquake.

Kirk mentioned the graduation of 7,248 youngsters from different countries - including the United States- from Havana’s Latin American Medical School, and the creation of nine University Colleges of Medical Sciences in Africa and Latin America, Prensa Latina news agency reported.

The researcher cited the agreement between Havana and Caracas to train 100,000 youngsters from the Third World as physicians, and the participation of over a dozen nations in the Henry Reeve Contingent, made up by physicians specialized in disaster situations and serious epidemics.

He asserted that Cuban medical internationalism not only continues but has also increased over the last few years.

While referring to the advantageous medical aid the island gives to Venezuela, the university professor recalled a statement by President Hugo Chavez, in which he asked the following question: if any country had to contract in the United States or in Europe the services of 30,000 physicians to work in poor villages and neighborhoods, how much would a capitalist company or country charge for offering such services? (Cubaminrex-Cuban News Agency)