Nicaraguan doctors support nomination of their Cuban peers to the Nobel Peace Prize

HAVANA, Cuba, Nov 30 (ACN) The proposal of the Henry Reeve contingent of Cuban international doctors to the Nobel Peace Prize counts with the support of the Association of Nicaraguan Doctors Graduated from the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM), in Cuba.

According to Prensa Latina (PL), its main principles are humanism, defense and exercise of the human right to health, promotion of the right to peace and its basis for change, and be anywhere they are needed, says the letter that that organization sent to the Norwegian Nobel Committee.

The note adds that the document was read by Dr. Maria Esther Betanco, president of the solidarity group, during the 14th National Meeting of the Friends of Cuba Association which took place on the city of Granada, southeast Managua, the Nicaraguan capital.

The letter recalls the circumstances in which the Henry Reeve Contingent was born, on September 2005, when Hurricane Katrina had devastated the American city of New Orleans, where it left more than 1,800 dead.

Since the George W. Bush administration did not accept the help offered by the Caribbean island at that time, the brigade had its baptism in a disaster situation a month later, as Guatemala suffered the consequences of major floods, says PL.

It also points out that a total of 688 Cuban health professionals assisted more than 477,000 people and saved the lives of more than 1,300, in that first health emergency situation.

It also highlights that almost in unison, the Cuban internationalist doctors assisted the population of Pakistan after the earthquake of October 8, 2005, a catastrophe that left around 86,000 dead and more than 100,000 wounded.

These were some of the data provided by the Nicaraguan doctors graduated from ELAM in support of the nomination of their Cuban colleagues to earn the Nobel Peace Prize.

The basis for the proposal recalls that on May 26, 2017, the Contingent received the Dr. Lee Jong-wook Memorial Prize for Public Health, from the World Health Organization (WHO), at the ceremony of its 70th Assembly.

Finally, PL excelled its performance in the confrontation with the current global pandemic of Covid-19, when organized in 52 brigades made up of 3,800 professionals, already provided care to more than 550,000 infected people in 39 countries on all continents.