as part of the recovery efforts after the passing of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, reported Granma newspaper.
HAVANA, Cuba, Sept 16 (acn)More foreign help continues arriving into Havana in the form of important donations of building materials and food as part of the recovery efforts after the passing of Hurricanes Gustav and Ike, reported Granma newspaper.
This Monday arrived two Hercules C-130 planes of the Colombian and Honduran Air Forcesat the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana.
The help from Colombia includes 3,000 sheets of zinc roofing material with the 18,000 ties necessary for installation (11 tons in all).
Honduras sent ten tons of foodstuffs including rice, beans, noodles and instant soups.
Luz Amanda Pulido, head of Colombia's Disaster Prevention and Attention Office of the Ministry of the Interior and Justice, led the Colombian mission and offered a special greeting from President Alvaro Uribe. She was welcomed by Orlando Requeijo, vice minister of Economic Investment and Foreign Collaboration.
The Colombian government expressed its solidarity with the Cuban people and their willingness to help it overcome the emergency situation.
Pulido said her government will attend the requests from the Cuban government, especially regarding building materials.
Meanwhile, Juan Ramon Elvir, the Honduran ambassador in Havana, called the humanitarian flight historic, since it is the first time in 50 years that a plane of the Honduran Air Force lands in Cuba on this type of mission.
Elvir handed Vice Minister Requijo a personal letter from President Manuel Zelaya to Raul Castro, in which he expresses his feelings of personal solidarity and on behalf of all Hondurans. The diplomat recalled the immediate response of Cuba when his country was affected by the powerful hurricane Mitch in 1998.
Elvir said there is a reserve of food, clothing, hygiene products and cooking utensils waiting to be sent in Honduras. He said this same plane will return with the donations of the Honduran people, many of them parents of the 1,000 young people that are studying in Cuba and patients of the more than 300 Cuban health workers currently providing medical services in the most remote areas of that Central American nation.