The athlete Leah Daniela Almeida defected this Monday from the Cuban delegation at the XXV Central American and Caribbean Games Santo Domingo 2026, as confirmed by journalist Francys Romero based on various sources.
The athlete, originally from the town of Máximo Gómez in the municipality of Perico, Matanzas province, left the Cuban team’s training camp shortly before the delegation began its return to the island.
What makes the case especially striking is the timing: Almeida left just two days after winning the bronze medal in the Lightweight Women's Double Sculls event, alongside her teammate Ana Laura Jiménez, with a time of 7:36.59 minutes on July 25.
That medal was, in addition, the first medal that Cuba added to its tally in these Games, behind Mexico —which won gold with Edith Márquez and Aylin Madueña (7:22.51)— and Venezuela, which took silver with García and Meneses (7:32.78).
Cuban sports authorities have not issued any official statement regarding the departure of the rower or the circumstances surrounding it.
The case of Almeida turns into a pattern what the regime would prefer to present as an exception. The first Cuban athlete to leave the delegation during these Games was 21-year-old field hockey goalkeeper Moisés David Torres Puig, originally from Las Tunas, who disappeared on July 24 while the team was attending a match of the Cuban women's national team as spectators.
A representative from the delegation, Oscar Sánchez Serra —director of the newspaper Jit—, confirmed the defection of Torres Puig on July 26, although he attempted to downplay it by describing it as a personal decision.
Meanwhile, the goalkeeper's family made a public appeal for help, stating that the young man was in a vulnerable situation, without a passport and without a close family network in the Dominican Republic.
The phenomenon did not begin with the Games. Between July 15 and 18, nine of the 12 members of the Cuban kayaking team deserted in Montreal, Canada, in what was described as the largest desertion recorded in that discipline for Cuban sports; four of those athletes were registered to compete in Santo Domingo.
The pattern repeats at every international event: at the 2023 Central American Games in San Salvador, five Cuban women's field hockey players abandoned the delegation; in 2025, defections were recorded in handball, athletics, and wrestling, among other disciplines.
Cuba registered 504 athletes in 42 disciplines for Santo Domingo 2026, a delegation arriving at the competition marked by withdrawals before and during the Games, reflecting the crisis that drives athletes to seize every opportunity to travel abroad without returning.
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