Cuba to Skip C.A. Games in Puerto Rico
HAVANA TIMES, Feb. 27 — Cuba announced that it will skip the Central American and Caribbean Games in the Puerto Rican city of Mayaguez this coming July because the United States did not meet the conditions requested by the island to guarantee equal conditions and the safety of its athletes and attendance of its reporters and officials.
The negative -which will lower considerably the level of competition at the Games- came from the Cuban Sports Institute and the Cuban Olympic Committee, reported IPS.
Cuba had asked for assurances that its airplanes would not be confiscated by US authorities and for visas for all members of its sports delegation. It also demanded that its athletes receive the same lodging, transportation, etc. as the rest of the participants.
In its status as a virtual colony of the United States, it is Washington that controls Puerto Rico’s immigration, foreign policy and important security issues.
It’s a damned shame that cuban athletes are the main losers in this stupid little intrigue; but it is certainly true that the U.S. police-state apparatus would be gunning — maybe literally — for everything cuban coming into its colony of Puerto Rico: and all the moreso today, as the U.S. descends inexorably into economic and political crisis. And the “threat” of puerto rican independence would be all the justification needed for these fascists to ‘deal’ with “cuban subversion”, etc., etc., yadda. And I don’t exaggerate here either. Remember: these people are still shooting indians and black people — and communists — for sport or profit. Whatever they can get away with.
The cuban government has made the right call, to boycott these games. But a shame it has to be made at all.