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• 01 / 20 / 2010

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While millions of Haitians are suffering a harsh situation and the international aid takes long to reach those in need, 344 Cuban doctors are assisting the earthquake victims, said a letter that The Age daily published in Australia on Tuesday.

The letter, signed by Australia-Cuba Friendship Association Chairwoman to Melbourne Joan Coxsedge, highlighted the current work by Cuban doctors, nurses and technicians, in an improvised totally equipped hospital in Port au Prince, the Haitian capital, it said.

Coxsedge said that more aid from Havana is on its way to the devastated Caribbean nation, and recalled that Cuba had provided free medical assistance to the poor in Haiti since 1989.

It is the only public health service in Haiti, she said in her letter to the daily, the main newspaper in Victoria State that circulates throughout the nation.

The text also said that support continued, despite the disturbances that followed President Jean Bertrand Aristide's overthrow, when hospitals were closed and other doctors left the country.

The letter highlighted that despite the harsh blockade imposed that the United State imposed in 1962, Cuba allows now that US aircrafts use its air space, avoiding the 90-minute delay that flying from the Guantanamo naval base to Haiti would entail.

Joan Coxsedge also said that 35,000 Cuban doctors are currently rendering medical assistance in 78 countries and even so, the United States included Cuba recently in a list of international terrorism sponsors.

Source: Prensa Latina