Cuban security agents infiltrated the facilities of the 25th Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo to monitor athletes from their delegation and prevent defections, according to a journalistic investigation by Diario Libre published this Tuesday.
Dominican security forces detected the operation and removed several of those involved from the sports venues during the event.
One of the most serious incidents took place at the Parque del Este during an indoor competition, when Dominican military officials alerted to the presence of Cuban agents who were pursuing athletes from their own delegation attempting to escape the group.
In light of the situation, the venue's security temporarily closed all access points and began a process of identifying everyone present, from ticket-holding spectators to staff with access credentials.
The accreditations were verified against the event's database, which brought together over 7,000 athletes and another 3,000 coaches and delegation members. The result was the identification of Cuban citizens without valid accreditation to perform those duties, who were removed from the venue.
Diario Libre specified that it could not determine whether the agents were detained or brought to justice in the Dominican Republic.
On the same day, a second episode with similar characteristics was recorded at an outdoor stadium, which confirmed the initial suspicions of Dominican authorities regarding a systematic surveillance operation.
The investigation also revealed that Cuban agents used athletic uniforms from other delegations to approach the monitored athletes without raising suspicion, a concealment maneuver that increased the severity of the case.
At the end of the Games, at least five Cuban athletes had left the delegation: the hockey goalkeeper Moisés David Torres Puig on July 24, the rower Leah Daniela Almeida on July 28, the fencers Adán Núñez and Hershey Daniela de la Cruz on August 12, and a fifth athlete identified as Yasmani Álvarez.
The defectors expressed fear of being returned to Cuba and reported pressures from individuals linked to the Cuban embassy to locate them. "We are very afraid that we will be deported," one of them stated in an interview with the specialized outlet Swing Completo.
The president of the organizing committee, José Monegro, denied this Tuesday having received information about infiltrations and stated that the daily incident reports "did not mention anything related to Cuban athletes or an extraordinary intervention by that delegation." Monegro added that the previous meetings with the Cuban delegation regarding security adhered to "normal protocols" available to any participating country.
The events are set against a broader diplomatic crisis: on August 13, the Dominican Republic ordered the departure of nine Cuban diplomats and their families — totaling about 21 people — with a deadline of August 16, citing Article 9 of the Vienna Convention, which allows for the declaration of a member of a diplomatic mission as persona non grata without publicly explaining the reasons.
The Cuban regime accused the Dominican Republic of acting under pressure from the United States and stated that ten diplomats were affected, compared to the nine recognized by Santo Domingo. The Cuban ambassador Ángel Arzuaga Reyes left the country along with the rest of the expelled staff.
Journalistic reports directly link the diplomatic expulsion to the alleged activities of espionage, blackmail, and surveillance conducted against the athletes who chose not to return to Cuba.
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