Cuba Present as Evo Morales
Takes Helm in Bolivia
Havana, Jan 21/2006 (AIN) Cuban Vice-president Carlos Lage Davila is heading the island's delegation to Sunday's swearing-in ceremony of Bolivian President-elect Evo Morales in La Paz.
The Cuban delegation also includes Foreign Investment and Economic Cooperation minister Marta Lomas and Deputy Foreign minister Rafael Dausa.
The Cuban representatives will ratify the island's willingness to further strengthen friendship and cooperation links in tune with an accord signed on December 30 by President Fidel Castro and Evo Morales in Havana .
The agreement takes force once Morales is sworn on Sunday. It stipulates that Cuba will grant 5,000 scholarships to Bolivian citizens who will study medicine in Cuba . The figure does not include another 497 Bolivian youths who are already studying on the island.
The agreement also calls for the setting up of a Bolivian-Cuban non-profit joint entity to guarantee free eye treatment services to all Bolivian citizens who can not afford such services in their country.
Likewise, Cuba will provide Bolivia with expertise on energy saving initiatives and support for its sports programs as well as the necessary resources to implement a literacy program in the South American nation.
Evo Morales, leader of the Movement to Socialism, garnered 53.7 percent of the vote in the December 18 presidential elections.