The lawsuit of Damián Montes de Oca Iglesias, the Cuban who was assaulted by Mijaín López and other members of the Cuban delegation at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games, was dismissed by the Chilean Prosecutor's Office, according to Diario de Cuba, citing the plaintiff and his lawyer as sources.
Montes de Oca explained that "the case was closed supposedly due to lack of evidence. That's how justice works in this country. Everything is very fast, to be honest, and the evidence was submitted. Not even two months passed and they closed the case in the Prosecutor's Office."
The young man presented videos of the aggression as part of the evidence file to establish the case. The complaint was filed with Carabineros (Chilean police institution) and was processed by the Prosecutor's Office of the Maipú Commune, the commune where the baseball stadium where Damián was attacked is located.
However, the complaint was closed "forcefully, Maipú is the municipality with the most communists in Santiago de Chile," points out Montes de Oca, hinting at a political nuance in his case.
His lawyer Pía Balbontín Díaz, who advised him during this case, added other elements that indicate the context did not favor the Cuban.
"At this moment, in Chile, undocumented people are not a national priority, and this boy is undocumented. For the authorities, he is nothing in this country. Right now, there is a very serious issue of migration crisis here," he explains.
“I was at the stadium when Mijaín López struck this guy, but the Carabineros did not intervene because they were protecting the official Cuban delegation. The Prosecutor's Office could have continued with the investigation, but he didn’t go to report the injuries. Mijaín returned to Cuba shortly after. So the Prosecutor's Office did not proceed with this complaint, they did not prioritize it upon seeing his details (of Montes de Oca),” describes the specialist in Human Rights, Migration, and Refuge.
In fact, the jurist recalled another event that took place during the continental sports meeting, in which during a volleyball tournament "the police removed three Cubans from the stands due to their behavior."
An addition to all this is expressed by Balbontín when he states that "to all of the above, we must add that we are in Chile under a communist government."
The hopes of the Cuban Montes de Oca to achieve justice for the act of violence experienced were shelved in the offices of the Prosecutor's Office.
"I at least expected a ruling that would prevent Mijaín from entering Chile again, or that upon entering national territory he would have to report due to the ongoing case against him. The Chilean authorities did not do their job as they should, that was very wrong institutionally," he said.
Although a sanction against Mijaín seemed complicated, because Chile and Cuba do not have signed extradition agreements.
"It was quite complicated for him to be charged here," concludes the lawyer.
The young Cuban had filed a complaint with the Carabineros on October 26, 2023, two days after Mijaín hit him in the face during a Pan American baseball game.
"I filled out the form where I detailed each of the events that occurred. I mainly reported the inaction of Carabineros at the baseball stadium for not wanting to process the case since it would involve the arrest of the brand ambassador of Panam Sports (Mijaín López)," said Damián on that occasion.
Until that moment, the young man from Villa Clara specified that the Cuban authorities had not attempted to contact him regarding what happened, and that "even less have they offered public apologies," nor had the aggressor done so.
The legendary Cuban baseball player José Ariel Contreras described the slap by the wrestler to the protester as a "shame," and especially lamented that both he and Mijaín are from Pinar del Río.
Mijaín López, four-time Olympic champion in Greco-Roman wrestling, is currently in France to participate in the Paris Olympic Games, where he will be the flag bearer for the Cuban delegation.
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