Montevideo - Sixto Amaro, director of the Social Security Bank (BPS) representing liabilities, has praised the humanitarian nature of Operation Miracle after more than 65,000 retirees and pensioners have restored vision so far.

This project, emerged under the encouragement of commanders Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro, has been 'a great initiative of two brother countries such as Cuba and Uruguay,' the official said in an interview to Caras y Caretas magazine.

About the 'Jose Marti' Eye Hospital -founded in 2007 with the collaboration of Cuban technicians- he said this allowed to develop 'one of the government's humanitarian and scientific policies,' so thousands of retirees and pensioners had the right to see.

'This operation is really a miracle,' you can see it when you visit the towns where an ophthalmologist had never gone in history and many did not even know what an ophthalmologist was, Amaro stated.

We visited hidden places such as Chapicuy, Pueblo Gallinal, Eucalipto, Quebracho and Piedras Coloradas, in the department of Paysandu; also Cerro Chato and Vergara, in Treinta y Tres, and Paso de los Mellizos, in Rio Negro, among many others, he added.

He praised the collaboration received from the National Organization of Retirees and Pensioners Associations that gave their premises as a support and provided their organization to investigate about 168,498 retirees and pensioners to the present day.

In order to assist more patients with less effort of the medical staff and the latest available technological tools, the possibility of decentralizing, to some extent, the Operation Miracle center and bringing it to other regions, is under discussion, Amaro said.