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A group of 40 young Uruguayans will travel to Cuba on February 29 to start studies in the Latin American School of Medicine (ELAM).

In a meeting with Cuban Ambassador to Montevideo Marielena Ruiz Capote, Uruguayan young people are aware of the good living and study conditions in the school.

ELAM receives nearly 10,000 students from 30 countries at present, for free.

Ruiz Capote talked to the future Uruguayan students in Cuba about the study programs and their combination with the work of the public health installations, sports and other activities.

Several mothers of the Uruguayan youth from other years also participated in the meeting, and gave the future students useful advice.

ELAM was created in 1999 by initiative of Cuban President Fidel Castro to contribute to the formation of doctors and specialists from other countries of the region, after the disasters caused by Hurricanes George and Mitch in Central America and the Caribbean in 1998.

Up to now, almost 5,000 young people have graduated from ELAM, selected from families with limited economic resources.

Cuba´s National Assembly of People´s Power elected Raul Castro Ruz as president of the Council of State for the next five years.

Prensa Latina is now posting his biography.

Born June 3, 1931 en the eastern town of Birán, in the former province of Oriente. He attended school first in Santiago and then in Havana, where he entered the University.

As a university student, he participated actively in political actions against Carlos Prio Socarras’s corrupt administration and the Batista tyranny.

In 1953, he attended an Internacional Youth Rights Conference in Vienna, and was invited to take part in a meeting to organize the 4th World Youth and Student Festival scheduled for Bucharest.

On July 26, 1953, he took part in the attack on the Moncada barracks, leading the group that took over the Palace of Justice, to back Fidel’s main military action against the garrison. But the assault failed, and Raul was sentenced to 13 years in the former Isle of Pine’s Model Prison.

In 1955, he was released alongside the rest of the Moncada attackers due to popular pressure on Fulgencio Batista’s regime.

Political persecution forced him to seek refuge in Mexico, where he participated in the preparations of the Granma revolutionary expedition in 1956.

Following the Alegria de Pio baptism of fire, he commanded a small gruop of four expeditionaries until December 18, when they met again with Fidel at Cinco Palmas, in Purial de Vicana.

For his outstanding participation in the Sierra Maestra guerilla warfare campaign, Fidel made him commander in February 27, 1958. He was assigned the mission to cross the province of Oriente, to the northeast of that territory, leading a column of guerrillas to open the Estearn front Frank Pais.

After the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959, he was appointed military chief of the province of Oriente. He was appointed Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces when the Ministry was founded in October 1959 and has served in that capacity ever since.

He was a member of the National Leadership of the Integrated Revolutionary Organizations and of the United Party of the Socialist Revolution of Cuba. He has been a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and its Second Secretary since the Party’s formation in October 1965.

He has been a member of the National Assembly of the People’s Power since the Parliament’s formation in 1976, when he was also elected First Vice President of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers.

In November 15, 1976, he became the nation’s highest ranking general and on February 27, 1998, on the 40th anniversary of becoming a Rebel Army comandante, he was awarded the honor title of Hero of the Republic of Cuba and the Maximo Gomez order in its first degree.

These decorations were bestowed upon him for his oustanding revolutionary career and his dedication.

As a political leader, stateman and military chief, Army General Raúl Castro Ruz has made important contributions to our Revolution.

As minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, he has achieved outstanding results in the country’s defense preparation and the implementation of the All the People’s War concept.

The new deputies to the People´s Power National Assembly (parliament) took oath today in solemn session after authorities of the National Electoral Commission (CEN) examined and validated their election certificates.

The youngest deputy Liaena Hernandez Martines, 18 and student leader of the eastern province of Guantánamo, read the oath on behalf of the 614 deputies of the 7th legislature of the Cuban Parliament.

Loyalty to the countryland, to comply and watch over the compliance of the Constitution of the Republic together with the rest of judicial norms, to carry out all the obligations imposed by their investiture and the subordination to the electors´will, formed part of the text read by Hernandez.

CEN president, Maria Esther Reus validated the quórum established for the session, by certifying the attendance of 597 deputies, for 97.23 percent of those elected, and only 17 justified absentees, among them that of Fidel Castro for health reasons.

Of the 614 parliamentarians, 285 are grassroots delegates for 46.42 per cent, 348 are men and 266 women.

Reus highlighted that the high women participation in the legislative organ is a recognition by the people to the efforts and perseverante of women through difficult and complex years.

She added that 131 deputies are between 18 and 40 years of age, 371 are in the group from 41 to 60 (17.25 percent), while 56 percent of all deputies was born after the triumph of the Revolution in 1959 and the age average is 49 years.

The CEN president commended the young deputies represent not only the natural access by new generations to the decision-taking posts, but also the continuity of the revolutionary process that started in January, 1959.

She indicated that 481 deputies are higher education graduates (78.34 per cent), 127 with medium high education, and when both figures are added, there are 608 deputies with higher and medium high education level (99.02 percent).

As for racial origin, 35.67 percent are black and mulattoes and 395 are white, for 64.33 percent, data corresponding to current ethnic composition of Cuban population.

Of the total, 175 deputies are linked to production and service activities (workers, farmers, educators and the health sector, among others), as well as 25 to scientific research.

She added that of the new deputies, 10 are sportspeople, 16 are media workers and 26 are writers, artists and cultural workers, four belong to religious institutions and 39 are chiefs, officers, and members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Interior Ministries.

Ricardo Alarcon, incumbent president of Cuba”s National Assembly of People”s Power, was reelected to his post Sunday during the opening of the assembly”s seventh legislature.

Infografía: Presidencia Asamblea Nacional

Alarcon was reelected a third time as the National Assembly”s president, with incumbent vice president Jaime Crombet also reelected.

Miriam Brito was elected secretary, replacing Ernesto Suarez.

Alarcon, born May 21, 1937 in Havana, is a graduate of the University of Havana with a doctorate in philosophy.

He became active in Cuba”s revolutionary struggle while at the university, where he was appointed president of the Federation of University Students in 1959.

In 1962, he was appointed director of the Foreign Ministry”s Americas division. Between 1966 and 1978 he served as Cuba”s permanent representative to the United Nations.

In 1978, he was appointed first vice minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. He became Foreign Affairs minister in 1992 until, in February 1993, he became president of the Cuban National Assembly.

He is a member of the Central Committee of the Cuban Communist Party since the Party”s second congress, and was promoted to the Political Board in the fifth congress.

On January 20, 2008, Alarcon was elected deputy from the Plaza de la Revolucion municipality.

Cuban President Raul Castro said a more compact and operational structure is required, with a lower number of institutions under the central administration of the State.
Key Address by Cuban President Raul Castro
Raúl Castro”s biography

Dossier: Miembros Consejo Estado
Galería de fotos

Speaking at the plenary session of the People”s Power National Assembly, shortly after the Seventh Legislature was installed, the president called for a better distribution of the State”s functions.

At his proposal, the Parliament agreed to hold a session to analyze the composition of the government.

“This is a timely decision, since we are not dealing only with appointments, but rather with decisions about which changes might be required in the system of institutions pertaining to the central administration of the State, and this needs more time,” he pointed out.

Raul Castro added that since the triumph of the revolution until 1994, “the State structures inherited from capitalism were adjusted as we went along to undertake the tasks imposed by the radical economic, political and social changes.” “The 1960″s institutionalization process, however imperfect, enabled us to structure an articulate system corresponding to those circumstances. We were then able to put ourselves on a level with the socialist countries, in terms of both good and bad experiences,” he recalled.

The Cuban president noted that institutionalization process in the 1970s and the adjustments made in 1994, amid the economic crisis, led to the reduction and merging of institutions as well as to the redistribution of the tasks previously entrusted to some of them.

Now, when the national and international panorama has changed considerably, “a more compact and operational structure is required, with a lower number of institutions under the central administration of the State,” said the newly-elected president.

He explained that this would enable us to reduce the enormous amount of meetings, coordination, permissions, conciliations, provisions, rules and regulations, among other problems.

Such measures, he added, will also allow bringing together some decisive economic activities which are presently disseminated through various entities, and to make a better use of our cadres.

He pointed out that the majority of Cubans, from all walks of society, at different stages of the Revolution, including the present, are increasingly convinced that the only source of wealth for the society rests with the productive work, above all when man and resources are efficiently employed.

Raul Castro recalled, on the other hand, that during a recent visit to Santiago de Cuba, he said that the massive support enjoyed by the revolution demands from us that we question everything we do in order to improve on it.

In that regard, he repeated that if the people are firmly united behind a single party, this must be more democratic than any other, and so must be the entire society, which, of course, can be improved, as any other human work.

He said every citizen must have the opportunity to express his/her criteria within the law, and called on to stop fearing discrepancies.

“The best solutions can come from a profound exchange of differing opinions, if such an exchange is guided by sensible purposes and the views are uttered with responsibility,” the Cuban president stressed.

“Our democracy is as participatory as few others are, but we should be aware that the functioning of the State and Government institutions is not yet as effective as our people rightfully demand. This is something we should all think about,” he admitted.

He added that in December, he had referred to the excess of prohibitions and regulations, and in the next few weeks, “we shall start removing the most simple of them.” “The suppression of other procedures, even if they might sound simple to some, will take more time for they require a more comprehensive study and changes of certain legal regulations, in addition to the fact that some of these are influenced by measures taken against our country by successive US administrations,” he pointed out.