Operation Miracle has benefited 100,000 Bolivians

• Evo inaugurates fifth Comprehensive Diagnosis Center

BY HUBERT GARRIDO —Granma daily staff writer—

LA PAZ, July 9.—Some 100,000 people to date have recovered their vision in Bolivia thanks to Operation Miracle, which began last year with Cuban assistance.

The achievement was highlighted by President Evo Morales at the inauguration of the fifth Comprehensive Diagnosis Center in the town of Aiquile, in the central province of Cochabamba.

Morales highlighted the unconditional help of the Cuban people and President Fidel Castro, who have made it possible for his country to now possess professionals and state-of-the-art technology in 25 hospitals, out of 40 planned before the end of the year.

Operation Miracle has also benefited low-income Argentine, Peruvian and Brazilian citizens who have traveled to ophthalmological centers situated in Bolivian border towns in order to receive surgery.

President Morales also underlined advances in the national economy and social projects in the spheres of health care and education, the fruit of the process of change initiated in January 2006.

Meanwhile, Rafael Dausá, the Cuban ambassador to Bolivia, confirmed the commitment of Cuba’s participants in these cooperation programs to increasing the quality and delivery of their services as internationalists.

In this sense, he specified that since their arrival in Bolivia in 2006, the Cuban doctors have attended more than five million patients and have saved 7,000 lives.

Through the national literacy campaign, involving Cuban advisors and their Bolivian and Venezuelan colleagues, more than 150,000 adults over 15 years old have learned how to read and write. This program aims for Bolivia to be declared free of illiteracy by 2008, he noted.

The inauguration of the Aiquile hospital was attended by Bolivian authorities including the Minister of Justice Celima Torrico and Minister of Labor Walter Delgadillo.