Guatemala Thanks Cuban Doctors Labor
Guatemala's Deputy Public Health Minister Julio Cesar Valdez expressed admiration, respect and gratitude for the work Cuban physicians are doing in his country.

Addressing the act in occasion of the eighth anniversary of the arrival of the Cuban health collaborators to this Central American country, Valdez talked of his people's affection to the island's doctors, who are working in the country's distant places.

Juan Antonio Villegas Recinos, general director of the Health Assistance Integral System, referred to the development of human capital in Cuba and solidarity of those who assist people regardless of race, creed or ideology.

There are currently over 300 physicians in 17 of 22 Guatemalan departments, and they have reduced infant mortality from 40.2 to 21.4 percent, said Yoandra Muro, chief of the brigade.

Health cooperation dates from the first years of the revolutionary triumph, and about 31,000 Cubans, 20,000 physicians of them, are working in 69 countries.

The act was attended by physicians, students, Guatemalans in solidarity with the Revolution, diplomats and Cuban staff working abroad.