Close friends Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro handed out diplomas on Saturday to several graduates of the Latin American Medical School, a regional initiative funded by Cuba that Chavez promised would be repeated in his own country.
Chavez, Panamanian President Martin Torrijos and several Caribbean prime ministers flew in to Havana for the evening ceremony marking the first graduation of students, more than 1,500 in total, since the school was created in 1998.
The two leaders chatted with the top students, shaking their hands and embracing them. Castro put rings on the hands of the female students, and patted many of the males on the head.
Ex-Salvadoran guerrilla leader Shafick Handal and former Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega also attended the event at Havana's Karl Marx Theater.
The medical school was created in 1998 after Hurricanes George and Mitch devastated several Caribbean and Central American nations, provoking serious health and sanitation issues.
Students at the school hail from Latin American, Africa and the US. Most come from low-income families and receive a free education on the condition they return home to serve their communities after graduation.
Dominica's prime minister urged the students to fulfill their promise after receiving their diplomas.
"I know that there are times when we're interested in acquiring material wealth," Roosevelt Skerrit said. "But you must see your journey as a mission, in the world and in your communities, to make a contribution."
The average age of the graduating students was 26, with 46 percent female. About 300 of them spent their last year of study working in Haiti, Honduras and Guatemala. Many are children of farmers and laborers, and will return to rural and indigenous communities.
Far from the violence ravaging Haiti, a market on the border with the Dominican Republic has maintained a welcome degree of normal everyday life. At the Dajabon border gate, a wave of Haitians press forward, eager to shop at the twice-weekly market about 200km from Haiti’s capital, Port-au-Prince. They are drawn by the market’s offerings — food, clothing, toys and even used appliances — items not always readily available in Haiti. However, with gang violence bad and growing ever worse in Haiti, the Dominican government has reinforced the usual military presence at the border and placed soldiers on alert. While the market continues to
An image of a dancer balancing on the words “China Before Communism” looms over Parisian commuters catching the morning metro, signaling the annual return of Shen Yun, a controversial spectacle of traditional Chinese dance mixed with vehement criticism of Beijing and conservative rhetoric. The Shen Yun Performing Arts company has slipped the beliefs of a spiritual movement called Falun Gong in between its technicolored visuals and leaping dancers since 2006, with advertising for the show so ubiquitous that it has become an Internet meme. Founded in 1992, Falun Gong claims nearly 100 million followers and has been subject to “persistent persecution” in
ONLINE VITRIOL: While Mo Yan faces a lawsuit, bottled water company Nongfu Spring and Tsinghua University are being attacked amid a rise in nationalist fervor At first glance, a Nobel prize winning author, a bottle of green tea and Beijing’s Tsinghua University have little in common, but in recent weeks they have been dubbed by China’s nationalist netizens as the “three new evils” in the fight to defend the country’s valor in cyberspace. Last month, a patriotic blogger called Wu Wanzheng filed a lawsuit against China’s only Nobel prize-winning author, Mo Yan (莫言), accusing him of discrediting the Communist army and glorifying Japanese soldiers in his fictional works set during the Japanese invasion of China. Wu, who posts online under the pseudonym “Truth-Telling Mao Xinghuo,” is seeking
‘SURPRISES’: The militants claim to have successfully tested a missile capable of reaching Mach 8 and vowed to strike ships heading toward the Cape of Good Hope Yemen’s Houthi rebels claim to have a new, hypersonic missile in their arsenal, Russia’s state media reported on Thursday, potentially raising the stakes in their attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and surrounding waterways against the backdrop of Israel’s war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The report by the state-run RIA Novosti news agency cited an unidentified official, but provided no evidence for the claim. It comes as Moscow maintains an aggressively counter-Western foreign policy amid its grinding war on Ukraine. However, the Houthis have for weeks hinted about “surprises” they plan for the battles at sea to counter the