A new incident surrounds the participation of the Cuban team in the VI World Baseball Classic, highlighting the regime's control over its athletes even outside its borders.
The Pelota Cubana page reported on Facebook that "today all the press covering the Cuba team's practice was expelled from the stadium," during a training session in the United States.
According to the publication, the journalists attempted to approach the players for interviews when they were stopped by the members of the delegation.
"We were kicked out of the stadium for wanting to talk to the players. They told us that we had to submit our questions for them to review, and then they would let us know if the player would respond," the page reported.
According to that account, when the reporters replied that "this is not Cuba, that the players either speak or don’t, but they can't choose what they are going to be asked," the reaction was immediate: they were escorted out of the stadium.
The report concludes that they were expelled "for doing our job. Interviewing the players."
The episode once again highlights the communication management surrounding Cuban athletes at international events, where political controversy often accompanies athletic performance.
For some, the teams officially represent the regime, while others argue that athletes should not be judged by political decisions and that sports should remain above ideological disputes.
The team competing in the VI World Classic arrived in the United States on Sunday, after completing its transfer in two parts, according to the official portal JIT.
The team arrived in Phoenix, Arizona, where they were scheduled to train before traveling to Puerto Rico to compete in the first round of the tournament.
Cuba Protest
The arrival of the team was preceded by another controversy. The INDER issued a statement rejecting what it referred to as "discriminatory" treatment by the U.S. government, following the denial of visas to eight members of the delegation.
The organization stated that it was an "act of aggression against our people and their national sport" and claimed that the measure impacted key areas of the team's operation.
However, the rejections did not affect any players; the eight denied visas belonged to other members of the delegation.
It is well-known that when a Cuban sports team travels abroad, the delegation includes officials from INDER and members of the regime's apparatus, serving as administrative and political staff whose role is not sports-related.
Those officials take advantage of these trips to make purchases, spend abroad, and represent the government institutionally, while also keeping an eye on the athletes to prevent possible defections or abandonments. This has been a well-known pattern in Cuban sports for decades.
Despite this, the official version insisted that the situation had a "marked political character" and that it could hinder the performance of the whole.
Cuba in the VI World Baseball Classic
The Cuban team will compete in Group A, which will take place in San Juan, Puerto Rico, alongside Puerto Rico, Canada, Panama, and Colombia. Analysts have described this segment as one of the most challenging in the tournament due to the competitive level of its participants.
The quarter-finals will be held in Houston and Miami; the semi-finals and the final will take place at LoanDepot Park in Miami.
Amidst this high-level sports scene, the incident with the press adds a new chapter to the long history of friction surrounding Cuban baseball when it ventures abroad.
Beyond what happened on the field, the discussion shifts back to the institutional control over the players and the constant overlap between sports competition and political discourse that accompanies the national team at every international event.
Filed under: