The goalkeeper Moisés David Torres Puig, originally from Las Tunas, became the first Cuban athlete to leave the Cuban delegation during the XXV Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo 2026.
The sports journalist Yasel Porto confirmed the case through his page Dporto Sports News, after consulting direct sources and an audio from the athlete himself.
Torres Puig was the youngest player on the Cuban men's field hockey team and served as the team's second goalkeeper.
The escape occurred while the team was attending as spectators a match of the Cuban women's national team at the stadium, a moment that the young man took advantage of to evade the strict security control at the facility.
The athlete told the reporter that he devised a strategy to mislead those in charge of the delegation.
"I was very nervous about being discovered. I felt like they suspected something, but I asked for ice, saying that I had hit myself with a ball during practice, and that calmed things down a bit," he said.
Once he lowered the guard of his custodians, Torres Puig executed his escape plan.
"Then I said I was going to throw the ice in a trash can that was in the stadium hallway, and that was when I managed to leave with the person who took me out of the place. We exchanged clothes and walked out until the UBER arrived."
At the time the information became public, the athlete was trying to reach out to his teammates but received no response.
"I have tried to reach out to some teammates, but no one has responded. I imagine it's due to how tense the atmosphere must be," he noted in the same audio.
The case of Torres Puig occurs just a few days after nine out of the 12 members of the Cuban canoeing team defected during a training camp in Montreal, Canada, between July 15 and 18, which is considered the largest defection recorded in that discipline in the history of Cuban sports.
Cuban field hockey also has its own history of defections in international competitions. Five players left the delegation during the Pan American Games in Santiago, Chile in November 2023, and three more defected in Barcelona in May of the same year.
Cuba arrived in Santo Domingo with 504 registered athletes —its largest delegation in recent years— and the official goal of finishing among the top three in the medal standings with at least 67 gold medals, but it had already suffered significant losses before the official start of the Games, which is set for this Friday.
Journalist Yasel Porto warned that the Torres Puig case could be just the first of several during the tournament, "given the existing legal complexities in the Dominican Republic regarding such actions" and the precedent set by the canoeing team weeks ago.
The men's field hockey competitions in Santo Domingo are scheduled from July 26 to August 4, which means the Cuban team will have to face that phase of the tournament with one less spot in their goal.
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