Salvadoran Foreign Minister Describes Visit to Cuba as Historic
News from Cuba | Saturday, 13 March 2010
Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez Bonilla, who is in Havana on an official visit at the invitation of his counterpart Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, described this visit as an historic moment in the bilateral relationship between Cuba and El Salvador.
"This is the first time that a Salvadoran foreign minister visits Cuba since both nations established diplomatic relations in 1902," Martinez Bonilla pointed out after placing a floral wreath before the monument dedicated to the Cuban National Hero José Martí at the Plaza de la Revolución.
The distinguished visitor, accompanied by Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Marcos Rodríguez Costa, toured the José Martí Memorial where he learned details of Martí's life and work.
Speaking with reporters there, he announced that during his stay in Cuba, he will inaugurate the Salvadoran embassy in Havana.
El Salvador-Cuba Framework Agreement
Salvadoran Foreign Minister Hugo Martínez announced he will sign a framework cooperation agreement with his Cuban counterpart, Bruno Rodríguez, as part of the first official visit to Cuba by a Salvadorian top ranking official.
According to the Salvadoran diplomat, specific deals in health, education, science and technology will also be signed. When questioned about the integration processes taking place in the continent, Martínez noted that meetings like the one recently held in Cancun, Mexico, are a strategic issue in that sense.
Cuba inaugurated its mission in San Salvador last January, after President Mauricio Funes re-established ties with Cuba in June 2009, after almost 50 years without relations.
Top Salvadoran Diplomat Stresses the Value of Cuban Solidarity
Hugo Martínez Bonilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs of El Salvador, highlighted Cuba's solidarity with the Latin American and Caribbean peoples.
During his visit to the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), the Central American diplomat said that doctors in Cuba are prepared with that extra sensitivity and humanism so necessary in our countries.
After recalling that the late Shafik Handal, a leader of the Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front, was an enthusiastic promoter of the ELAM project in El Salvador, Martínez pointed out that in his country they are already enjoying the results of it “because you start seeing in Salvadoran doctors a different approach, much closer to reality and humanity.”
