Cuba Maintains Offer of Medical Help to the US, says Fidel

Havana, (AIN) Cuba maintains the offer of medical
aid to the victims of hurricaneKatrina, repeated Cuban
President Fidel Castro.

Fidel explained that Cuba was not offering money, but
saving lives, and even though the American authorities have
not answered Cuba’s action of solidarity, the Cuban doctors
are ready to help the people of that country and any other
country that needs it.

The Cuban president attended, Monday, the national
graduation of 1,905 doctors from medical institutes and
schools from all over the country. He also ratified the
official
constitution of the Henry Reeve International Medical
Contingent against Disasters and Major Epidemics.

The brigade was set up September 4 with the for the initial
purpose of helping the Americans affected by hurricane
Katrina.

The Cuban leader said that the media had justified the US
authorities’ silence regarding the Cuban offer by citing
the Cuban government’s refusal to accept the White
House offer of 50,000 dollars when hurricane Dennis hit the
island last July.

In this regard, Fidel repeated that Cuba rejected the offer
because of historical and moral reasons, since the US has
maintained an economic blockade against the island that has
cost billions of dollars to the country, adding the
harassment and aggressions against the island have cost the
lives of thousands of people.

The Cuban president pointed out that 3,515 young people
have graduated from the Latin American Medical School from
countries in South, Central and North America, including
Cuba. Those are new doctors that will be available to help
the people in our continent and in the rest of the world.

In addition, Fidel noted that for more than four decades
and amidst an economic crisis, medical services in the
island have become the most important tool for the exchange
of
goods and services with the rest of the world in the
economic field. However Cuba has continued providing free
medical assistance in more than 60 nations of the Third
World.

The Cuban President gave a graduation certificate and a
copy of the book The Dairy of Che in Bolivia to 17 star
graduates from medical schools from all the provinces of
the country.

Present in the ceremony were Cuban political leaders, and
government officials, representatives of social
organizations and military institutions and relatives of
the young graduates and medical school students.