The Comandante Fidel Castro Medium Health Institute today celebrated in Angola the graduation of 55 technicians specialising in nursing and clinical analysis, at a ceremony dedicated to the centenary of the Cuban statesman who gives the centre its name.

The ceremony also served as a tribute to the feat of 26 July 1953, which initiated the stage of struggle led by the leader of the Cuban Revolution and led to the triumph of 1 January 1959, recalled the promoter of the Institute, António Manuel Pacavira.

Present on the occasion were the Cultural and Press Attaché of the Cuban embassy, Jorge Trujillo; the Third Secretary of the diplomatic mission, Melissa Bascomb; and the Vice-President of the Angolan League of Friendship, Solidarity and Peace (Laasp), Fernando Mota.

Trujillo congratulated the graduates and said that few ways of paying tribute to Fidel Castro (1926-2016) are as authentic as the training of young people who will dedicate their lives to the care of others’ health, since the revolutionary leader conceived health as a fundamental human right.

An expression of this is that, despite Washington’s economic aggression, intensified this year with new measures and an oil siege, the country continues to dedicate significant resources to preserving free and universal medical care, protecting the most vulnerable sectors of the population, and maintaining the development of the biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry.

From now on, a stage full of responsibilities begins in which they will have to put their knowledge and ethics to good use, the diplomat stated.

«May the example of Fidel Castro, his faith in science, his commitment to social justice and his profound sense of human solidarity serve as a constant inspiration in the exercise of their profession,» he concluded.

General Victor Viegas, currently a member of several solidarity organisations for Cuba, Palestine and Venezuela, who had direct contact with Cubans during the war (1975-1991), spoke on the occasion and referred to the importance of Cuban military cooperation and the role of the Cuban leader.

He insisted that his thinking extended aid to the countries of the African continent fighting for their liberation and was also significant in the construction of the new free nations through collaboration in health, education and other sectors, as well as in the training of cadres.

The vice-president of Laasp, for his part, stressed that Angola’s debt to Cuba and Fidel is eternal, and called for working together to achieve more institutes like this in the country, to perpetuate this idea and pay homage to what Cubans did here.

Bernarda Alberto spoke on behalf of the graduates and thanked the opportunity given to her by the Institute to continue studies and train, as she received a scholarship from a programme that existed at that time (2022) for the benefit of families in vulnerable situations.

Pacavira exalted the personal example of the revolutionary leader, who raised his voice for the dispossessed of the world. He highlighted the creation of internationalist schools on the Isle of Youth, a programme that allowed him and thousands of young people to train and become professionals.

«Thank you, Commander, for your legacy of ethics in politics, for your humanism,» he said, and added that in his centenary, with more force than ever, it is necessary to unite in condemning the genocide that the US economic blockade against Cuba represents, a policy that must cease.