Luque (Paraguay) (EFE).- The possible abandonment this week of four Cuban athletes from their concentration hotel in Asunción, main venue of the 2025 Junior Pan American Games, is the most recent episode of this kind of events that have occurred for more than three decades.
In the early hours of the day in the Paraguayan capital, the Minister of the Interior of the South American nation, Enrique Riera, reported that his department is looking for four athletes from the island who participated in the Asuncion Junior Pan American Games, following a complaint from their delegation to the Police that the athletes did not return to their hotel since Wednesday and added that a case of abandonment of the team is presumed.
“They haven’t yet taken any steps with Conare (National Commission for Stateless Persons and Refugees), but in principle that’s the assumption we have,” Riera told ABC Cardinal radio, referring to the entity that grants political refuges and asylums in the country.
The minister confirmed that, in any case, the search for the athletes has been activated.
ABC Cardinal reported that these are three rowers and a young woman from the handball team.
Baseball, the sport with the most dropouts in the past
Many of the nearly 800 athletes who have defected from Cuban sports delegations in recent decades have been members of the baseball teams that represent the island in different competitions.
Fotografía de archivo del jugador de béisbol Aroldis Chapman, de los Medias Rojas de Boston. EFE/Miguel Sierra
Among the most famous defections in Cuban baseball are René Arocha, Aroldis Chapman, Yoenis Céspedes, José Abreu and Orlando ‘El Duque’ Hernández, who escaped from Cuba on a raft in 1997.
Boxing has also been greatly affected
Cuban boxing, which has produced figures like the legendary Teófilo Stevenson, has also suffered the impact of this particular phenomenon.
Figures like Guillermo Rigondeaux, Odlanier Solís, Yuriorkis Gamboa, Yan Barthelemy, Andy Cruz, Yoenlis Hernández and Osvel Caballero are seen among the names who have left the Cuban ranks for different motivations.
Fotografía de archivo del boxeador Guillermo Rigondeaux (d), de Cuba. EFE/Kena Betancur
Other sports impacted
With a view to the London 2012 Olympic Games, the dropouts affected the Cuban teams so much that they could not qualify for the competition in the British capital.
In the case of athletics, elite athletes such as Jordan Díaz and Yulenmis Aguilar -who acquired Spanish nationality-, Pedro Pablo Pichardo -naturalized Portuguese-, Andy Díaz -Italian- and Yaimé Pérez have decided to leave the island for different reasons.
Fotografía de archivo de la atleta Yulenmis Aguilar, que proviene de Cuba pero representa a España. EFE/Christian Bruna
Paraguay and Abandonments from Other Countries
The South American nation has already been the scene in the past of abandonments of athletes from other countries.
In 2018, the Paraguayan rugby club San José stated that it had “sponsored” three Venezuelan players who decided to stay in the country and play for this team at the end of the South American under-20 championship that was played in Asunción between April 8 and 14, as explained to Efe by Gustavo Borgoñón, director of the club.
Borgoñón highlighted that the three players “are already training” with the rest of their teammates as new members of the team, but that they still do not have the official registration to play matches due to their legal status in the country.
