"Thousands of Uruguayans have regained their sight through a joint medical programme between local specialists and a Cuban medical brigade, offering free eye surgeries to low-income patients. Footage captured on March 19 shows patients attending consultations and check-ups at the Jose Marti Eye Hospital in Montevideo, a key centre for ophthalmological care in Uruguay. The initiative, known as 'Operation Miracle', was launched under bilateral agreements between Uruguay and Cuba in 2007, aimed at treating preventable blindness, particularly cataracts. “This agreement between the Uruguayan government and the Cuban government was to bring a Cuban medical brigade to help restore vision in cases where the main cause of reversible blindness is cataracts,” said Alejandro Fuschel, director of the Jose Marti hospital. According to official data, the hospital has carried out more than 916,000 consultations, over 118,000 eye surgeries and nearly 218,000 evaluations since 2007. “Here we perform a large number of surgeries; daily, there is an average of 40 surgeries, more or less distributed with 50% carried out by the Cuban Medical Brigade and the other 50% by Uruguayan doctors,” Fuschel added. Members of the Cuban brigade, often referred to as the 'white coat army', described their work as a humanitarian mission. “There are many values that define Cuba’s white coat army: humanism, altruism and internationalism that we bring to any country in the world, always with love, with respect and saving lives,” said Evelyn Almira, head of the Cuban Medical Brigade. “It is no secret what the Cuban Medical Brigade is in the world. We are being persecuted, they want to weaken us, they want to remove us, thinking that it is the Cuban government that benefits, and that is not the case. We work all over the world,” she added. Cuban medical missions have faced scrutiny in several countries, including Honduras, Guatemala and Jamaica, where agreements were not renewed in 2026 following pressure and allegations from the United States over possible labour violations. Cuba rejects these claims, maintaining that the programme is based on international solidarity and remains vital for communities with limited access to healthcare."