President of Cuba visits Mexico to consolidate cooperation

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel began his fourth visit to Mexico on Saturday to consolidate health and trade cooperation as part of the close ties between the two countries that have grown stronger during his tenure. six-year-old by Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador.

Díaz-Canel arrived on a plane from Venezuela’s national airline Conviasa at the international airport in the state of Campeche, on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico, where he was received with military honors by López Obrador .

“Mexico and Cuba have always maintained relations of political brotherhood,” the Mexican president said as he welcomed his Cuban counterpart, whom he described as a “distinguished, admired and fraternal guest.” In a brief speech, López Obrador praised the Cuban revolution and said it was promoted by “an indomitable people”, which showed “the boundary that must always exist between sovereignty and the desire for hegemonic domination. “.

For his part, Díaz-Canel thanked his Mexican counterpart for his solidarity in recent years and months in the face of the “extremely difficult challenges” that Cuba has faced due to the hurricanes and the American trade embargo. Mexico and you preside,” he added.

The two presidents plan to visit the Archaeological Zone of Edzná, a station of the tourist railway that will cross the Yucantan Peninsula, called the Mayan Train, and the Naval Region Number 7 of Campeche, where they will meet the staff of the Institute. Mexican Social Security.

During the visit, Díaz-Canel will receive the Mexican Order of the Aztec Eagle, which is the highest honor given to foreigners, in recognition of Cuba’s support for Mexico during the coronavirus pandemic by sending hundreds of doctors and nurses for the reception on the island of hundreds of medical students, and for the sale of vaccines and drugs, according to the presidential agreement published the day before in the Official Journal of the Federation.

López Obrador announced Friday that he will analyze with Díaz-Canel the possibility of extending the sending of Cuban doctors to Mexico to reinforce the contingent of some 610 who began to arrive last year, and the possibility of acquiring Cuban ballast for the construction of the Maya Train routes, one of the emblematic works of his government.

Over the past five years, Díaz-Canel has visited Mexico four times. The first visit was made in December 2018 to participate in the inauguration of López Obrador, with whom he met 10 months later in the Mexican capital to discuss cooperation plans in the areas of health, education and Sport.

In September 2021, the Cuban leader returned to Mexico to speak as a guest of honor at the Independence Day celebration and later at the summit of the Community of Latin American States and the Caribbean.

Last May, López Obrador traveled to Havana, where an agreement was reached to send several hundred Cuban doctors to Mexico to strengthen care in the health sector, which is facing setbacks due to the lack of specialists.

Mexico and Cuba have a historic relationship that has lasted for more than a century. During the 1960s, Mexico was the only Latin American country not to sever relations with the government of Fidel Castro and to maintain trade with the Caribbean island.

López Obrador maintained close cooperation and unrestricted support for Cuba in condemning the United States trade embargo.

In 2021, after demonstrations in which thousands of Cubans took to the streets to protest basic commodity shortages and power outages, the Mexican government sent medicine, food and fuel to Cuba. island, which represented the greatest support for humanitarian aid for decades, only comparable to that offered in the time of Carlos Salinas de Gortari (1988-1994) when Cuba was going through the crisis caused by the collapse of the Soviet bloc.