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In a beautiful, fraternal, and humane gesture,
the President of Bolivia, Evo Morales Ayma,
arrived this morning in Cuba to pay a visit to
comrade Fidel. He was welcomed at the
International Airport “José Martí” by Army
General Raúl Castro and other leaders of our
Party and Government.
Since the very first moments when our Commander
in Chief fell ill, Evo had expressed his wishes
to visit him, and today he could finally
accomplish his purpose, on a date of great
symbolism for all Latin Americans, the 191st
anniversary of the signing by Bolivar of his
“Letter of Jamaica”, an anticipated appeal to
the unity of our peoples.
For almost two hours, the leaders of Cuba and
Bolivia shared an ambiance of extraordinary
friendship. Evo expressed how much the Bolivian
people love Fidel and added that in his country,
it is said that “Fidel has not fallen ill, that
he is just repairing himself”.
During the exchange, the Bolivian President
expressed his deep appreciation for the work of
the Cuban medical brigade in his country and the
benefits brought by Operation Miracle to that
sister nation.
A Cuban medical brigade, made up by 1,661
members, including 27 Bolivian youths who
recently graduated from the Latin American
School of Medicine is working in all 9 districts
of Bolivia and in 109 out of 112 provinces.
More than 1 million 400 thousand patients have
been assisted and 2,088 lives have been saved.
Nineteen of the twenty Comprehensive Diagnosis
Centers and seven Ophthalmology Centers with 14
surgical positions, donated by Cuba to the
sister nation of Bolivia, are already
operational. More than 30,000 Bolivian patients
have already undergone eye surgery in these
facilities.
Evo and Fidel also discussed the progress of the
Literacy Campaign in Bolivia using the Cuban
method “Yes, I can”. A total of 7,145 people
have already graduated, and almost 200,000 have
enrolled at some 10,000 literacy stations.
Preparations are under way to start the literacy
campaign in the Aymara language as from October.
The Bolivian President also explained the
transformations taking place in his country,
specially the work being done by the
Constitutive Assembly.
During the fraternal meeting, Evo presented
Fidel with a wooden sculpture that represents an
Aymara Indian, bearing the following legend:
“To Commander Fidel Castro, for his 80
revolutionary years of life, from the people and
the government of Bolivia”.
At the end of his emotional meeting with the
Commander in Chief, the Bolivian President
confirmed his attendance to the Non-Aligned
Summit to be held in Havana next week.
Afterwards, Evo and his cabinet minister had
lunch with Raúl, Lage, Felipe, and the Cuban
ambassador to Bolivia.
In the afternoon, the Bolivian president met
with 208 Bolivian youths from the Social
Workers’ Training School. In Cuba, there are
also 4,289 Bolivians who are studying at or are
preparing to enter the School of Medicine, in
addition to the 491 who are already studying in
the Latin American School of Medicine at
different levels. The youths received Evo with
extraordinary enthusiasm.
Later in the afternoon he met again with Raúl at
the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces,
and after a second exchange they left for "José
Martí" International Airport. At 6:48 pm Evo
and his delegation were seen off by Raúl, Lage
and Felipe.
Fidel is of the view that Evo is an extremely
intelligent and exceptional leader who knows
with an almost mathematical precision what needs
to be done in Bolivia. | 
