Cuban First Vice President Raul Castro Stresses Progress of Education and Healthcare Programs

During the activity, held in the town of Cardenas, in the western province of Matanzas, Raul Castro handed over a diploma of recognition to Rolando Govantes, director of the Battle of Ideas Museum, inaugurated by Cuban President Fidel Castro on July 14, 2001.

Likewise, the Cuban official acknowledged the outstanding work of a group of professors teaching at different levels of education for their outstanding role in the Battle of Ideas project.

This ideological campaign was initiated in Cuba on December 5, 1999, with a march by women demanding the return to his hometown of 4-year-old boy Elian Gonzalez who had been kidnapped by the Cuban American mafia based in Miami.

Elian, who yesterday celebrated his 13th birthday, attended the event with his father Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and some relatives of Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero, the Five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in US prisons.

The President of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, and Minister of Basic Industry, Yadira Gonzalez also attended the commemoration ceremony.