Governor of Belize receives Cuban President on official visit

HAVANA, Cuba, Feb 13 (ACN) The governor of Belize, Froyla Tzalam, received on Sunday the President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, on an official visit focused on strengthening bilateral ties of brotherhood and fraternity.

After a brief ceremony at the Philip SW Goldson International Airport, the Cuban leader and his delegation moved to the Government House to hold brief talks and sign agreements, according to the published program.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, the Cuban head of state addressed a special joint session of the National Assembly, the first of its kind on a Sunday and held outside Belmopan since it became the capital.

After lunch, Díaz-Canel met with Cuban collaborators in this nation before departing back to his homeland around 17:00 local time.

The host Foreign Minister, Eamon Courtenay, explained last Friday that this is a reciprocal visit to the one Prime Minister John Briceño made to Cuba last year.


The arrival of any president to another country is a sign and a signal of the solidarity, cooperation and strength of the bilateral relationship, the foreign minister said.

This is how we would like to characterize it, we are very grateful that he is coming, that he is bringing his delegation and, as I said, we welcome him, remarked the authority.

This is the first visit of a Cuban president to Belize, while three of the five heads of government of the Central American nation in recent years, Said Musa, Dean Barrow and John Briceño, have traveled to the largest of the Antilles.

On July 15, 1995, the highest Belizean and Cuban authorities established diplomatic relations based on mutual respect, cooperation and solidarity.

Cuban cooperation in health matters began in this nation before, in 1990, mainly in the area of health and sports.

Currently, 120 Cuban collaborators in medicine and two in sports work in Belize and since the beginning of the ties, more than one thousand Cuban specialists in the medical sector have rendered their services.