Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez arrived in Havana, Cuba, on Nov. 7 to attend the celebration of the 10th anniversary of the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement between the two countries.
Under the agreement, signed on Oct. 30, 2000, two years after Chavez’s assumption, Venezuela provides Cuba with 100,000 barrels of oil per day and Cuba sends its experts to Venezuela to help it in healthcare and education.
Talking with press in Caracas before leaving, President Chavez said the cooperation between the two countries demonstrates the efforts and results made in the fight against underdevelopment, poverty and illiteracy, and also represents a new world, a multi-polar world.
He stressed that after ten years of cooperation, Cuba helped Venezuela open 672 free-of-charge clinics, 514 dispensaries and 28 hi-tech medical centres. Nearly 30,000 Cuban medical experts have been working in Venezuela .
As the results, more than 439 million patients in Venezuela received free-of-charge check-ups through these establishments. Cuban doctors also gave free-of-charge eye operations to 2.5 million patients and treatment services to 62 million persons in total.
Venezuela ’s President also highlighted the fact that over 10 years, hundreds of thousands of air flights carried patients from Venezuela to Cuba for free treatment.
Also thanks to Cuban experts, Venezuela has completed a campaign to eliminate illiteracy.
The total capital of the two countries’ health care, educational and cultural cooperation projects reached 6.55 billion USD.
President Chavez expressed thanks to Cuban leaders Fidel Castro and Raul Castro, and affirmed his determination to further cooperation with Cuba .
Venezuela is Cuba’s biggest trade partner, with two-way trade increasing to 3.39 billion USD last year from 200 million in 2005./.
