Yunel Escobar distances himself from the FEPCUBE Dream Team

The Cuban baseball playerYunel Escobar He distanced himself from the Dream Team of theCuban Professional Baseball Federation (FEPCUBE) and confessed to having mixed feelings as an athlete and as a patriot.

“It is with deep regret that I want to communicate my decision to no longer be part of the organization. I want to make it clear that my decision is not related to any player or member of the management. “It is a genuinely personal decision,” Escobar said this Sunday in apublication from Instagram.

He explained that, in his opinion, FEPCUBE lacks “a clear path towards the objectives we seek to achieve, always taking into account who we are and who we represent”, something that he considered “fundamental” for his motivation.

“As a professional player, at the moment I am experiencing mixed feelings,” acknowledged the former industrialist who, in recent days, declared that his participation in the Dream Team - named Patria y Vida until the recent controversy unleashed by the use of this phrase - made him feel the pride of representing the Cuban exile and free Cubans in the world.

Escobar indicated that he gave himself to the FEPCUBE project “with the belief that we should have a firm and secure attitude towards a collective objective.”

“I want to make it clear that I represent the Cuban exile, those who have suffered, and continue to suffer, those who died, those who fearlessly shout 'Long live Cuba Free of Communism!'; to those who say loud and clear 'Down with the dictatorship!', to those who long for freedom, and to those who, when asked, speak without mincing words," said the infielder.

Wishing luck to all the other members of the team and the federation, the 41-year-old player said goodbye to “this great project,” stating that he was aware of “what I represent and, therefore, the value that my words have.”

After joining the professional team in the middle of the month, Escobar declared: "For me this is an honor, playing with players who are outside the country, that is number one. Number two is to represent the political prisoners, all the people who died at sea, those who have suffered from the Cuban dictatorship."

For the player, the issue of rafters is particularly sensitive, since he himself fled Cuba on a raft to the United States in 2004, where he was part of the rosters of the Atlanta Braves, the Toronto Blue Jays, the Tampa Bay Rays, the Washington Nationals and the Los Angeles Angels.

For its part, in the middle of the month, the Colombian government declared that it did not support the Barranquilla Intercontinental Professional Baseball Series, and thatdid not recognize the FEPCUBE, in a clear show of support for the authorities of the Cuban regime.

The institution stated that it rejects the actions and demonstrations of the FEPCUBE, which it accused of attempting to use the name, representation and national symbols of Cuba, "without the respective authorization of the competent body of the country of origin and without having the recognition of the Colombian government or the sports authorities of our country".

This Sunday, the singerYotuel Romero issued a statement aboutthe non-use of the Patria y Vida logo on the caps of the Dream Team players during his debut against the Miami-Dade College Sharks team.

According to the former member of the Orishas group, there were two fundamental reasons that motivated the separation from the Cuban independent baseball team. “First of all, they decided to change their name to Dream Team,” he said.

Secondly, the one who was one of the authors and performers of the song emphasized that “FEPCUBE is openly seeking financing, using all available means, a decision that is exclusively theirs.”

“However, we were never informed that they would use the name 'Patria y Vida' for that purpose. Given these differences in communication, vision and objectives, we made the decision to disengage immediately,” Yotuel added.