Mexico to strengthen its medical system with help of Cuba

MEXICO CITY

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Monday that Mexico will receive medical assistance from Cuba, including 500 doctors and COVID-19 vaccines.

Lopez Obrador completed his tour through Central America and the Caribbean, including Cuba. He and Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel celebrated 120 years of bilateral relations between the two nations, while pledging cooperation in the field of medicine.

"We are going to acquire a vaccine that they are producing for children, very young children, which has given them very good results," said Lopez Obrador at his press conference.

Mexico will also send medicine students to study in the Caribbean island and hire doctors from Cuba since, according to Lopez Obrador, Mexico does not have enough doctors to meet the country's needs.

"[Cubans] are already working to comply with our purpose to guarantee the right to health care, medical attention, medicine, analysis, or free clinical studies for those who do not have social security. We have already started, but we have this deficit that we are solving," he added.

On Sunday, the heads of the health ministries of both countries signed the bilateral cooperation agreement in Cuba's "Palacio de la Revolución." The agreement sets the international cooperation in medicine, research, and human resources for both countries.

As part of his work tour, Lopez Obrador visited Cuba on Sunday, where the Mexican leader took the opportunity to celebrate Cuba's independence.

"It is time to express and explore other options, of dialogue with the leaders of the United States, and to convince and persuade them that a new relationship between the countries of America, of all the American continent, is possible," said Lopez Obrador in the press conference on Sunday.