Braudilio Vinent, regarded as one of the best pitchers in the history of Cuban baseball, publicly denounced the neglect he faces at over 70 years of age, struggling without financial support and having difficulties obtaining basic food supplies.
"I sacrificed myself for the Revolution, now no one remembers me," stated the former Santiago player, known as "The Meteor of La Maya", in comments shared by the La Tijera profile on Facebook.
"I am already over 70 years old, I am a veteran, but no one remembers Braudilio Vinent," expressed the former pitcher, visibly affected.
Her words describe a daily reality of hardship that contrasts with an exceptional sports career: “It’s tough to have to go out on the street to fight for a bit of rice, because there is no assistance for the glories of sport.”
Vinent warned that if the situation does not change, he will remove the paintings, diplomas, and medals that attest to his career from the walls of his home, although he clarified that he has no intention of selling them to survive: "Principles are not for sale."
An unparalleled career on the Cuban mound
Born on July 10, 1947, in Songo-La Maya, Santiago de Cuba, Vinent accumulated impressive numbers over 20 seasons in the National Series that place him among the greatest pitchers in Cuban history: 221 victories, 2,134 strikeouts, 63 shutouts, and 265 complete games, with an earned run average of 2.42.
He was the first pitcher in modern Cuban baseball to achieve 200 wins —on May 16, 1976— and the first to reach 2,000 strikeouts in 1986.
With the national team, he won six world championships (1972, 1973, 1976, 1978, 1980, and 1984), four Pan American gold medals, and two Intercontinental Cups.
In 2014, he was inducted into the Cuban Baseball Hall of Fame in a ceremony held at the Mártires de Barbados stadium in Bayamo.
A recurring pattern
The case of Vinent is not isolated. In recent weeks, a series of complaints has revealed the systematic neglect faced by Cuban sports legends upon retirement.
The great chess master Lázaro Bruzón denounced that retired Cuban athletes were discarded by the regime after years of service: "They were useful figures as long as we were producing results. Once retired, the business was over for them. That's how that system works: it recycles people, drains souls, and discards those who no longer serve its narrative."
The former world boxing champion Bernardo Comas is suffering from senile dementia at the age of 65 and lives under the care of his mother in a house with leaks in Camagüey, with a pension of only 8,000 Cuban pesos per month.
The wife of Olympic champion Andrés Aldama has made a public appeal for help due to the neglect her family is experiencing in Matanzas, where the former boxer — suffering from dementia and diabetes — lives without medication or any response from INDER.
These cases include the former boxer Gaspar Casamayor, seen as a beggar asking for money on the streets of Santiago de Cuba, and that of the baseball player Víctor Tornés, reported to be abandoned in Bayamo after suffering a cerebral stroke.
Last year, the national commissioner for Athlete Care at INDER, Wilmer Lewis Calvo, denied in the Round Table that sports heroes were neglected, and stated that there are support structures in place. The reality documented in multiple provinces contradicts that version.
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