First VP Jose Ramon Machado Ventura Meets with Cuban Brigade in Uruguay CUBA, Mar 1, 2010. - Cuba’s First Vice-president, José Ramón Machado Ventura, met on Monday with the group of Cuban voluntary workers offering their services in Uruguay. During the meeting, in which members of the island’s diplomatic mission in Montevideo participated, Machado Ventura acknowledged the work carried out by a brigade of specialists at the Jose Marti Eye Center. In two years at this center, the Cuban medical group has carried out over 15,000 cataract operations, plus hundreds of other eye surgeries, some of them refractive, the Prensa Latina news agency reports. The Cuban leader arrived in Montevideo on Sunday to attend the ceremony of investiture of president elect Jose Mujica, who took up his post on Monday in an unprecedented open-air public ceremony. Upon his arrival, Machado Ventura was received by Mujica and by outgoing president Tabare Vazquez, the two of them members of the Frente Amplio left-wing coalition. During these meetings, Machado Ventura, who is also a Politburo member, conveyed greetings from Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and President Raul Castro, the Granma newspaper reports. In addition, the First VP ratified his hosts the excellent state of bilateral relations and the prospects of expanding them. (Cubaminrex - acn) |