Although the Government of Portugal has not yet made public the program for the visit of Miguel Díaz-Canel to that country, the hiring of 300 doctors from the Island for the Portuguese National Health Service will be on the table, according to estimates by the media of that country. The Cuban president plans to meet his counterpart, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, before participating in the summit of the European Union and the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (EU-Celac), which will meet in Brussels on 17 and 18 July.
Rebelo de Sousa, according to the Portuguese newspaper Newspaper, had pending a dialogue with several Latin American presidents, including those of Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay. His interest in Cuban doctors comes from a trip to Italy in June in which he personally assessed the situation of the 400 health workers sent by the Island to that European country.
After verifying, the newspaper says, that the Cubans collected their money without the intervention of the Havana regime, the president decided to ask Cuba for a “different agreement than usual” to also pay directly to those hired. Supposedly, he managed to get the Cuban government to accept it, although the exact terms of the agreement are still unknown.
Díaz-Canel’s trip will have the character of a “state visit, postponed due to the pandemic,” the president said on his Twitter account.
Díaz-Canel’s trip will have the character of a “state visit, postponed due to the pandemic,” the president said on his Twitter account, after clarifying that his conversation with Lisbon stemmed from the personal “invitation” of Rebelo de Sousa to expand the “historic relations” between the two countries.
The Portuguese press – which had already reported Rebelo de Sousa’s interest in hiring toilets on the island – reported that Díaz-Canel’s reception will be in the historic Jerónimos Monastery, from the 16th century, and that later both leaders They will meet at the Belém Palace, residence of the Portuguese president.
He Parliament of Portugal will also hold a welcoming ceremony for Díaz-Canel at 3:00 p.m. this Thursday, according to the Newspaper. The Cuban delegation will be welcomed by the president of the Assembly, Augusto Santos Silva, as this organization made known in a brief announcement.
The Portuguese newspaper also learned that Díaz-Canel will attend a meeting at the Lisbon City Hall and a dinner at the Citadel Palace, in the city of Cascais, to which the Portuguese Prime Minister, the socialist António, will also be invited. Coast.
It is the Government of Costa, precisely, that has facilitated the hiring of Cuban doctors, who, according to the Portuguese press, have already started the procedures to join the public system as soon as possible, taking into account the various steps that foreigners must follow before being considered fit.
Doctors arriving from third countries must undergo various tests, not only in medicine, but also in Portuguese
Doctors arriving from third countries must undergo various tests, not only in medicine, but also in Portuguese, for example. It is not the first time that Portugal has resorted to Cuban toilets, since in 2009 it welcomed 44 to reinforce the public network in the regions of Ribatejo (center), Alentejo and Algarve (south).
After concluding his visit to Portugal, Díaz-Canel will leave for Brussels for the summit between the EU and Celac, an organization, the latter, which he called the “united voice of Latin America and the Caribbean.” Despite the fact that he guaranteed that he was going to the meeting with a “constructive spirit” and the best intentions of strengthening the relationship between the two “regional blocs”, the president enters Brussels on the wrong foot.
The plenary session of the European Parliament approved a resolution on Wednesday – with 359 votes in favor, 226 against and 50 abstentions – in which it asks the Cuban government to “put an end to the policy of repression, which has intensified in recent times.” In addition, it demands the “immediate and unconditional release of all those detained solely because of the exercise of their human rights, the withdrawal of abusive criminal charges and that exiles be allowed to return.”
Faced with criticism from MEPs, the island’s National Assembly issued a statement to “vigorously” reject the document and stated that “the European Parliament lacks the moral, political and legal authority to judge Cuba.” According to the Assembly, the text “shows a highly interventionist content, defames not only the Cuban reality, its legal system and the rule of law,” but also “the ties” that the island’s regime “maintains with other States in a sovereign”.
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