http://www.granma.cu/ingles/cuba-i/20dic-patino.html
Havana. December 20, 2012
SANTIAGO DE CUBA
Ecuador to donate housing in wake of Hurricane Sandy
Eduardo Palomares, and Granma International Newsroom
SANTIAGO de Cuba.—Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño described his
visit here to organize the donation of a significant number of homes to people
affected by Hurricane Sandy, as an embrace in solidarity from the people of his
country and President Rafael Correa.
Ecuadoran Foreign Minister Ricardo
Patiño (left) and Vice President
Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz (right)
confirmed their political will to
continue developing bilateral relations.
Patiño affirmed that despite being a small country with few economic
possibilities, Ecuador has a very large heart and a strong disposition to offer
a friendly hand to Cuba.
"Cuba merits it for everything that she has done for Latin America, and
particularly the Revolution, which was the best gift that she has given us, in
addition to concrete aid in health, in the study of persons with disabilities,
in the training of doctors, in education, sports and sectors of the economy,"
he noted.
Lázaro Expósito Canto, member of the Central Committee and First
Secretary of the Communist Party in the province, and Reinaldo García Zapata,
President of the Provincial Assembly of People's Power, received the Ecuadoran
Foreign Minister and his delegation.
The Ecuadoran delegation included Pedro Jaramillo, Minister of Housing,
Infrastructure and Urbanism; Finance Minister Patricio Rivera; the assistant
general secretary of the National Risk Management Secretariat; and Edgar Ponce,
Ecuadoran ambassador to Cuba. They were accompanied on the Cuban side by
Construction Minister René Mesa and Maria Elena Ruiz Capote, Deputy Minister of
Foreign Affairs.
After learning in detail about the damages to more than 170,000 homes,
including close to 17,000 totally destroyed, the delegation toured areas badly
hit by Sandy and were informed in detail of locales possessing the necessary
conditions for housing development.
Aspects such as technologies to be used, material supplies, water and
electricity networks, communications and roads were considered in areas
adjoining the Abel Santamaría urban center, the Petrocasas community (homes
constructed with oil derivative material) in the Chicharrones and La Risueña
neighborhoods.
"We, the ALBA countries, are here as another demonstration of
integration, and we move fast," Patiño commented during the tour. "We are
hoping to complete the studies quickly in each locations selected, in order to
begin construction work immediately and in the most effective way for our
peoples."
LATIN AMERICA NEEDS CHAVEZ
In the context of the recovery in Cuba of the President of the Bolivarian
Republic of Venezuela, the Ecuadoran Foreign Minister affirmed, "Chávez is a
profound friend of our Citizens’ Revolution, a man of great fortitude, and when
I accompanied our President on a visit to him (December 10), a few hours before
the operation, Rafael Correa said that we had come to lift his spirits, but
when Chávez saw how concerned we were about his health, it was he who lifted
our spirits."
Patiño said that during his most recent visit to Caracas he had the
opportunity to talk with ministers from the Bolivarian government of Venezuela
who had accompanied Chávez to Havana, and they told him that he was on the road
to recovery, as wished by all the peoples of the world.
The Ecuadoran minister also referred to Chávez’ role in Latin American
integration, and his contribution to the advances experienced by the region in
recent years, in which the ALBA (Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our
America) and the grand demonstrations of solidarity given by Cuba stand out.
"In our case," he emphasized, "not even joking or in our dreams, could we
have trained the 2,000 doctors we have graduating in Cuba free of charge, with
no conditions attached. A contribution of this nature, and which we so much
need, would never have occurred to a rich country."
During his three-day visit to Cuba, Patiño also had working meetings with
Council of Ministers Vice President Ricardo Cabrisas Ruiz, Foreign Minister
Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and Rodrigo Malmierca, Minister of Foreign Trade and
Investment.
Patiño reaffirmed to the press "a will to advance and improve relations
between Quito and Havana, above all in issues of health, education and matters
related to economic interchange."
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