Chavez Thanks Fidel and Raul for Barrio Adentro Mission

Chavez presided over at the Teresa Carreño Theater the ceremony to mark the seventh anniversary of that project, which has made it possible to carry out over 300 million medical consultations and save the lives of more than one million 500 thousand people, thanks to the efforts made by Venezuelan and Cuban physicians.

During his speech, broadcast by Venezolana de Television, the head of state went into greater detail on the benefits of this program and the opportunities it offers to citizens, who don’t have to pay for medical services, something unimaginable in many countries, including industrialized ones.

While referring to the sacrifice of health professionals, Chavez quoted the following
phrase by Cuba’s National Hero Jose Marti: “In Medicine, like in Law, a profession of struggle, tough souls are needed to successfully perform that priesthood.

Contact with day-to-day moral and material miseries and combat with society and Nature, don’t do small souls any good, while they’re a revelation of supreme things in supreme and beautiful souls.”

During the ceremony, Cuban Deputy Public Health Minister, Doctor Marcia Cobas, pointed out that marked advances have been observed in the health of Venezuelans during these seven years.

She mentioned how the people of that fraternal nation hold Cuban doctors in great esteem, and that they will always support the social projects boosted by Chavez.
Also participating in the meeting, described by Chavez as historic and socialist, was Cuba’s ambassador to Venezuela, Rogelio Polanco.