Photo: X account of the Presidency of Cuba
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez arrived in Mexico, on September 28th, to participate in the inauguration of the new president of this Latin American nation, Claudia Sheinbaum: the first woman to assume that position in Mexican history.This is the fifth occasion in which the Head of State visits Mexico since he assumed the presidency in 2018, denoting the close relationship he has maintained during all these years with the outgoing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador.Upon arriving on Mexican soil, the president was received at Felipe Ángeles International Airport by Dr. David Kershenobich, who will assume the Ministry of Health in Sheinbaum's government.Díaz-Canel will participate in the protocol acts that will take place on the occasion of what in this country is also called "oath of office." According to the Mexican Magna Carta: "every public official, without exception, before taking office, will take the oath to keep and uphold the Constitution and the laws that emanate from it."
Photo: X account of the Presidency of Cuba
The President is expected to hold several meetings and participate in a meeting with members of the Cuban state mission here.The Cuban delegation is composed of the member of the Political Bureau and Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla; the head of the Department of International Relations of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba, Emilio Lozada García; the general director of Latin America and the Caribbean of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, and the ambassador to this country, Marcos Rodríguez.According to the Mexican Foreign Ministry, the presidents of Colombia, Gustavo Petro, and Brazil, Luis Inácio Lula da Silva, also arrived on Sunday for the inauguration.The president-elect also announced, on her social network X account, that representatives of 105 nations and 22 international organizations would participate in the inauguration. President Luis Arce of Bolivia, President Xiomara Castro of Honduras, President Gabriel Boric of Chile and several prime ministers of the Caribbean Islands, among other authorities, have also confirmed their attendance.Cuba and Mexico have maintained uninterrupted diplomatic ties since May 1902. The Cuban Foreign Ministry currently qualifies them as excellent. Bilateral relations cover health, education, culture, sports, preservation of heritage and the environment.Medical cooperation -among the sectors of greatest development and perspective between both countries- began in April 2020, with a brigade that attended patients from COVID-19 in Mexico. In May 2022, the Mexican government announced the hiring of more than 500 Cuban doctors to cover the demand for primary health care in hospitals of the Mexican Social Security Institute-Bienestar. To date, close to 3,000 Cuban doctors are working in 23 states.As of December 2023, 1,561 Mexican students had graduated in Cuba. Today, 484 scholarship holders in Medical Sciences are being trained on the island.
