According to Cubaminrex website, Cuba’s collaboration began in 2012 with 75 medial professionals in Ecuador, a figure which has now reached 816, as a result of 11 agreements, nine with the country’s Ministry of Public Health and two with its Social Security Institute.

Since October of 2014, Cuban specialists have received 825,000 patients, while family doctors in remote areas have treated 928,883, free of charge.

(Granma)

Oligarchic groups, supported by the media, Internet social networks, and the transnational press are attempting to discredit the legitimately constituted government, generate a crisis, and unleash violence in a stable, peaceful country.

President Correa and other leaders of the Alianza País movement have energetically denounced this new coup attempt, and have taken the lead in popular mobilizations in defense of the Citizens’ Revolution, and rejected a plan, which according to reports, could be receiving support from abroad.

Given the events, which appear to be following the same destabilization script used against other progressive governments in the region, the Revolutionary Government of the Republic of Cuba expresses its firm, unconditional solidarity and support to the sister people of Ecuador, to the government of the Citizens’ Revolution, and its leader, compañero Rafael Correa Delgado. At the same time, we insist on respect for Ecuador’s legal order, and energetically reject any interference in the country’s internal affairs, in accordance with the principles established in the Proclamation of Latin America and the Caribbean as a Zone of Peace.

(Granma)

The Ecuadorian president made clear that Quito respects the right to asylum and appreciates Snowden’s recent disclosures about the US program to spy millions of people through Internet and phone conversations, but it cannot analyze his asylum request because it was not made in the Ecuadorian country.

Snowden must make the request in the Ecuadorian territory or in any Ecuadorian embassy in the world, said Correa.

The Ecuadorian president also said that his country did intentionally help the former US National Security Agency contractor to travel from Hong Kong to Moscow.

In that sense, Correa said that his Government neither authorized nor even knew about the safe-conduct urgently granted by the Ecuadorian consul in the United Kingdom, Fidel Narvaez.

Regarding Snowden’s current situation, who is currently in an airport in Moscow, Correa said that it is a complicated situation, but he is in the Russian territory now and it is a Russian authorities’ decision.

Early June, the former US intelligence agent revealed information about a Washington’s program to spy millions of people through phone and Internet communication, and due to that the U.S. Government accuses him of spying and request his extradition.

An his first press conference after learning of his victory from five exit polls, Correa said that this challenge is the key to development.

“Latin America did not develop, even though it had everything, natural wealth, and pre-Colombian civilization,” said the leader of the ruling Alianza PAIS movement, blaming the delay of development on the ruling classes that governed Latin America.

“Those exclusive ruling classes always handled our apparent states according to their interests and not those of the majority,” he said, adding that “the big challenge is to make this change irreversible, dependent on the majority and not on power factions, for which we must finish work on the Constitution,” Correa stated.

In the struggle against poverty to achieve a decent standard of living, we must keep doing the same: implement good economic policies, protect our country, provide jobs, recover our natural resources, and prioritize social debt before external debt, he pointed out.

“Modesty aside, we want to say that we are, according to the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLAC), the country that has done most to reduce poverty and inequality in our America,” the president-elect noted.

Correa praised the upcoming 2013-2017 Government Plan as the best in the country’s history, with 10 basic plans and 35 proposals, where answers to all questions on the development project and eradication of poverty can be found.

The head of state, who was accompanied by Foreign Minister Ricardo Patiño, was welcomed at the Jose Marti International Airport, southwest of the capital, by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodriguez and Quito ambassador in Havana, Edgar Ponce.

“We came to give him (Chavez) a hug on behalf of the Ecuadorian nation,” said Correa. “This is a gesture of solidarity with a brother at heart,” stated the Ecuadorian president.

Before his departure from Ecuador, Correa expressed through his account on the social network Twitter that “all the Patria Grande (Latin America) is with him (Chavez)”.

In the early morning hours of Monday, Cuban President Raul Castro received here the Venezuelan leader.

Chavez will be subjected in Havana to a medical treatment that includes surgery again, after detecting the presence of malignant cells in the same area of previous surgical interventions.

In an appearance on national radio and television in Venezuela, the president said Saturday that after being detected malignant cells in the same place where he presented a cancerous tumor, he will undergo further surgery.

Therefore, on Sunday he requested the National Assembly permission to leave the country.

Chavez said Executive Vice President, Nicolas Maduro, will be leading the country during his absence.

The universities comprising the North Carolina Research Campus focus on studying science of human health, biotechnology and the improvement of the quality of life.

The leader’s visit aims at using the research center’s experience at the Ecuadorian government project Yachay, City of Knowledge, that is being built in the northern province of Imbabura.

The U.S. research center includes eight state and private universities in North Carolina. Correa also expects to visit the Dole Nutrition Institute that operates in the Campus.

Researchers of the U.S. center have received over 30 million USD in federal subventions for research and are discovering new scientific links among nutrition, agriculture and diseases.

Ministers of Human Resource Augusto Espinoza, of Education, Gloria Vidal; of Sports, José Francisco Cevallos; and the secretary of Science and Technology, René Ramírez, accompany the Head of State and the foreign minister.

“Clearly, those responsible for this are these political mafias, with no ethics or people’s support, who bribed people for their signatures and contracted businesses to do what they were supposed to do as authentic political movements,” said Correa.

In a press conference convened by the Alianza Pais Movement in its headquarters in this capital, Correa called on the people to remain on permanent alert until September 22 to prevent groups with irregular rolls or without the number of members required under the law from register.

In the presence of Vice President Lenin Moreno, Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino and Parliament leader Fernando Cordero, Correa rejected the accusations that the Government and the Alianza Pais Movement are hatching electoral fraud.

He said the Alianza is the only party that would not need to cheat anyone because it has collected 10 times more signatures than the number established by law, it has won eight consecutive elections and is supported by at least 70 percent of the people, according to surveys.

The head of state’s statements appear today in the digital newspaper El Ciudadano, which also reports the state agreement with the nonprofit organization Educational Testing Service to assess the skills of professors who teach English in the country.

Correa explained that, according to studies by the Ministry of Education, there are too many public schools with few students and, in his opinion; an instructional unit that includes various disciplines should be not have less than one thousand students.

The President said that with about three million students in the state education system, the optimum would have three thousand schools and 16 000 as currently exist, of which not a few were built without planning or order.

“It makes no sense this dispersal of educational infrastructure that costs so much in terms of quality,” he said.

For Correa, one of the large government debts is special education, so the system must be reformed to provide that service.

“Everyone knows he is a fighter for freedom of expression without limits,” Correa said in reference to the founder of Wikileaks, who faces extradition to Sweden for alleged sex crimes rejected by him.

The president noted that Assange is under protection of Ecuador’s diplomatic mission in London, while performing talks, at the highest level, to find a solution to his requirement.

He said Ecuador rejects the death penalty, so could not risk a person who has applied for asylum, especially for political offenses, to face that possibility.

“We can not accept that there is a political persecution due to the ideas expressed by Assange, and if he has committed a legal offense in terms of Wikileaks, those are the charges that should be presented, he added.

Correa explained that his country lives under a state of law, loves peace and justice, and would not accept breach in the process because of the political ideas of this Australian citizen.

He said his government will take the necessary time and take a decision in the appropriate moment.

“We do not want to offend anyone, especially a country like the United Kingdom, but we will not give up taking sovereign decisions,” he stated.

On Thursday, Michael Ratner, lawyer for Assange, said in an interview on national television that his client chose Ecuador to seek political asylum because he knew that can not be manipulated by the United States (U.S.).

Assange had two options, be extradited to Sweden or to U.S. territory and therefore he had to find a place where he could receive protection and that was not manipulated by the U.S., he said.

Wikileaks founder fears that once in Stockholm, where he is accused of sex crimes he denies, he will be extradited to U.S. territory for political offenses and sentence there to death.