Controversy Continues with Independent Cuban Baseball Team
By Ronal Quiñones
HAVANA TIMES – I thought we wouldn’t touch on this topic again, but this week the controversy surrounding the Cuban Professional Baseball Federation (Fepcube) team based in Miami increased instead of decreasing, particularly within the Cuban community there.
The team had attempted to participate in the 2024 Intercontinental Series, scheduled to take place from January 26 to February 1 in Barranquilla, Colombia. However, pressures from the Cuban government led to the cancellation of the tournament.
Beyond the sports aspect, the debate intensified in the United States due to the “concessions” the team had to make to participate in the event, which was their primary goal, regardless of what happened on the baseball fields.
To achieve this goal, a powerful blow to the Cuban dictatorship, as demonstrated by the repressive machinery’s effort to stop them, they decided to forgo carrying the Cuban flag and singing the National Anthem.
In a way, they tried to follow Russia’s current approach, where athletes are currently unable to compete with their anthem and flag. However, unlike them, the intention was to sing the anthem, even acapella, as the most crucial thing was to be there and be present for the civic and social significance it entailed.
The “play ball” call never happened, but Fepcube faced fierce attacks from the Cuban exile community, not only for making concessions but also for raising money for the cause, even though there are millionaires among them. The integrity of some individuals associated with the project was also questioned due to their past with the official Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB).
In this regard, former pitcher José Ariel Contreras, who may not be able to return to Cuba after this, was very clear and explained the pressures Cuban athletes in all sports face. To carry out their work, they have to lower their heads and keep silent.
Contreras confessed that he refrained from making statements even after being in the United States because his family was still on the island and could face reprisals. He then spoke of the protests in Cuba of July 11, 2021, as the point of no return, as likely happened with the rest of the “suspects”: the Gourriel brothers and Agustín Marquetti, the latter not even belonging to Fepcube.
I return to the same issue: not everyone is willing to sacrifice their life for a cause. However, personally, I regret that those living in freedom forget how life is in this country, where people express themselves publicly very differently from what they really think. This kind of hypocrisy extends from the janitor to the minister because even the latter doesn’t believe what they say.
With all this, the Communist Party Central Committee is rubbing their hands, enjoying the division among emigrants.
The pain of the generations that founded the exile community sometimes prevents initiatives like this from moving forward. These initiatives clash with official regulations that need to be maneuvered to achieve the fundamental goal: making a presence. That’s why they were willing to give up something as sensitive as the flag, endured provocation, and accepted those conditions, even though they didn’t plan to comply with them, knowing that it was better to be expelled from that invitation-only event.
The Cuban government is hurt by this project, and that should be paramount because separation remains the main problem of the exile, and the main weapon to sustain the regime.
Playing on weekends in a local stadium is not a problem, and everyone can wear whatever uniform they want and sing whatever they want. However, when it comes to an official international event, certain rules must be followed, and that’s what should be understood by those criticizing this project.
Not having an official federation behind them, by their own choice, is a problem for participating in competitions. The dilemma is to be or not to be, and for the former, certain protocols must be followed, which intensify when you go independently.
In this case, the pressure was such that they wanted the Cuban team to sign a document committing not to make any political statements, and they refused because it would be too much. But it shows how far they are willing to go to nullify them.
It was seen last year with Cuban boxer Robeisy Ramírez, who couldn’t use national symbols in his fight for the WBO junior featherweight title against Satoshi Shimizu. The Cuban embassy in Japan did everything possible and impossible until it achieved what it wanted. However, the bigger blow to them was that Robeisy won his title singing “Patria y Vida” and shouting “Down with the dictatorship and freedom for the political prisoners!”
Leaving Cuba, last year, Guatemalans couldn’t hear their anthem or see their flag at the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador or the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile. However, they continued to compete, and no criticism was directed at them. Going further back, the famous game between Jewish prisoners and their guards during World War II is well known, and no one criticizes the inmates for playing in rags but rather the symbol it represented by delivering a sports and political slap.
Everything has been explained in every possible way, but it seems that every time a point is clarified, a new doubt arises to find fault, and the Cuban authorities are laughing at the division when the project is barely starting and instead of organizing, it has to defend itself.
I repeat the same as last week: the worst thing would be not to present the battle because people who ultimately want the same thing cannot agree.