Cuba to Skip Caribbean Baseball Championships
HAVANA TIMES – Cuba will not take part in the regional championship, the Caribbean Series, in Puerto Rico next month, the Caribbean baseball confederation CBPC said in a statement Sunday, reportó dpa.
The confederation cited “difficulties” in obtaining visas for the Cuban players. These had led to Cuba’s “exclusion.”
The Cubans have had to apply for US visas in third countries since the end of consular services at the US representation in Havana.
According to the Caribbean baseball confederation, there will not be enough time for the paperwork to be completed for the start of the Caribbean Series on February 1, as the participating Cuban club will only be known after the home league has completed its season at the end of January.
The Cuban Baseball Association charged that its team had been left out of the Caribbean Series as a result of what it called “arbitrary pressure from the US government on the Confederation.”
The administration of US President Donald Trump has tightened business and travel restrictions on the Caribbean island after relations thawed under his predecessor Barack Obama.
Cuba, represented by Las Tunas, finished second in the 2019 Caribbean Championships behind Panama’s Toros de Herrera.
You need visa for the whole team… If 6 of them have it, so what?? You still need to apply for the rest of the players that don’t have visa… For anyone in the Latin America is a big headache apply for US visa, for Cubans worse… We have to travel to Guyana, Barbados or Jamaica… So isn’t for the players for any citizens of Cuba have to travel overseas to apply for a visa… And that isn’t cheap.
Moses Paterson: No team involved in this matches select his players 6 months ago.. All of them pre-selected some player one month no more than 2 months before the competition.. Even a week before some teams change players due some lesions or other private problems of some players.. For other countries this is easy, but for Cuba need a lot of time to apply for a visa….if Mexicans have to travel to Guyana to apply for a US Visa, for sure they will not take part of this event. Is about timing and costs that made a simple visa process too expensive and hard to afford…Cuba take part in the past events and was easy.. No Visa.. Now we need a visa… If you apply for US visa, is a big headache even for a simple citizen… Why you write like that.
The Trump Administration is getting too big for its britches. Baseball and other cultural exchanges should be separate from politics.
This story sounds fishy to me. Why did they wait until now to start the application process? Many of these athletes have already traveled abroad and probably already have Visas. But even for those that do not, is there no special dispensation for a group of athletes such as this? Did they ask? Cuba is famous for failing at something and then placing the blame elsewhere, especially the United States. I remain skeptical that there is more to this story.
This makes me very mad. I’ve always felt Cuba to be an integral member of the Caribbean Series. Baseball is their blood and they’re not playing.