Yesterday, Bolivian President Luis Arce inaugurated the second nuclear medicine center to open in the country, this one located in the southeastern department (state) of Santa Cruz. The first center, in the city of El Alto, opened six months ago and the third one, being built in La Paz, is expected to open early next year. The construction of the centers, representing an investment of $150 million, is a joint project of Bolivia’s Nuclear Energy Agency (ABEN) and Argentina’s high-tech company INVAP.
At the inauguration ceremony, Arce, himself a cancer survivor, described the opening of the center as “historic. A disease like cancer demands technology for the prompt detection and treatment to find a definitive solution for patients. There is nothing that will stop us in the fight against cancer…. We’re going to save lives in eastern Bolivia,” Bolivia.com reported him saying.
