Cuba rejects that “the political” is the reason for its exclusion from the Caribbean Series 2021

Cuba described on Friday as “intolerable” a statement by the leader of the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CBPC), Juan Francisco Puello, in which he noted that the island’s exclusion from the Caribbean Series is due to a “matter that it has to do with politics “

“We absolutely reject the recent statements by Juan Francisco Puello. No political problem affects the development of Cuban baseball or attendance at the Caribbean Series. It was the CBPC that unjustifiably excluded the country from that fight,” said the Cuban Baseball Federation ( FCB) on his Twitter account.

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The governing body of baseball on the island, chaired by Higinio Vélez, added that Puello went too far in his statements and warned that “we will denounce his words and actions before the World Confederation (WBSC) and the member leagues of the Confederation of Professional Baseball of the Caribbean ”.

For his part, the head of the Cuban Olympic Committee (COC), Roberto León Richards, considered in another message on Twitter as “intolerable” that the sports leader accuses Cuba of “political problems” that prevent its presence in the Caribbean Series.

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The reaction of Cuban sports authorities came after an interview that Puello gave to ESPN this week, in which he stated that “Cuba is a matter that has to do with politics. When that country resolves its political issues, then we will see Cuba again. In the meantime, this issue will remain quiet, ”he said.

Cuba was the star of the Series from its creation in 1949 to 1960, winning seven editions, but stopped participating for a long period after the revolutionary government abolished professional sports.

After years of negotiations, the island returned as a guest to the Series in Venezuela-2014 and just a year later it had the luxury of winning another title with the Vegueros de Pinar del Río in San Juan.

But his return was fleeting, because in the last two editions -San Juan-2020 and the one of 2021 that takes place this week in Mexico- the place of the island has been occupied by Colombia. In the 2020 edition, it was argued that there were difficulties with Cubans’ visas to travel to Puerto Rico.