Above: Argentina Vice President Amado Boudou, Haiti Tourism Minister Stephanie Villedrouin, Haiti President Michel Martelly and Cuba Vice Minister for Health, Dr Marcia Cobas Ruiz
By the Caribbean Journal staff
Haiti has inaugurated a new hospital in the town of Corail named after former Argentine President Nestor Kirchner.
Argentina’s Vice President, Amado Boudou, attended Haiti to mark the opening, while Argentina President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner inaugurated the facility by videoconference.
The “President Nestor Kirchner” hospital facility has a total of just under 13,000 square feet of space.
Haiti President Michel Martelly, speaking to Kirchner in Spanish, thanked her and the people of Argentina for “a magnificent work that we have here in Haiti today.”
The community hospital will serve as many as 150,000 people, according to Kirchner. It is a joint project of Cuba, Haiti, Venezuela and Argentina, carried out by the Union of South American Nations.
Argentina’s work in Haiti over the years has included a UN peacekeeping presence and a food security initiative, among other programmes.
The food security programme is called Pro Huerta Haiti, related to the Pro Huerta food security plan that has existed in Argentina since 1990.
It’s the second notable project in Haiti in recent months to be named after a Latin American leader. In April, Haiti announced it would be renaming its airport in Cap-Haitien after former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.