University of Panama Awards Honorary Prize to Cuban President

Cuba President Raul Castro was granted the Honory Prize award by the University of Panama. Cuban First Vice President, Miguel Diaz-Canel, will receive the recognition on his behalf

Diaz-Canel is visiting the country on the occasion of the inauguration ceremony of the expanded Panama Canal Zone.

The Cuban First Vice President met yesterday with Panamanian President, Juan Carlos Varela, and the heads of State and Government who are attending the inauguration ceremony of the third set of locks of the inter-oceanic waterway.

The top Caribbean leader was accompanied by Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Ana Teresita Gonzalez, and the Cuban ambassador to Panama, Antonio Miguel Pardo.

Yesterday, they toured the Old Town of the city and paid a tribute to the Cuban scientist, Carlos J. Finlay, in a plaque located in the Plaza Francia in the historic area.

Finlay’s discovery that the Aedes aegypti mosquito was the carrier of dengue fever, saved the lives of many of the builders of the Panama Cana, many of whom died as a result of not knowing that the mosquito was the carrier.