2023-11-15 20:22:28
The end of the Pan American Games coincided, for a group of Cuban athletes, with the toughest determination they have had to make in their lives: that of not returning to the island with their fellow delegation members. According to the latest report, delivered by Minister Camila Vallejo, there are 11. The situation, which generated the immediate controversy, immediately put them in a complex category: that of deserters. In this scenario, they risk severe sanctions in their country, to which, to begin with, they cannot return for a long time, although they do not intend to do so either.
Technically, the athletes are using the visa they received to participate in Santiago 2023, which extends for 90 days. In fact, they have been able to train. After that period, they are subject to being granted refugee status, which they process with specialized advice. In the meantime, they reveal the motivations that led them to stay. The reasons are varied and, of course, painful.
Five of the athletes, three of the Cuban hockey teams (Helen Carta, Yakira Guillén, Jennifer Martínez), a member of the men’s squad (Yurisan Socarrás) and an athlete (Yao Illas, bronze in the 400 meter hurdles), participated in a talk at the Universidad del Desarrollo, within the framework of the Voices of Democracy cycle. The conversation was moderated by Nicolás Monckeberg, an academic at the UDD Law School. At the event, the athletes stated that they made the decision to desert without even communicating it to their respective families. The phenomenon is not new: some 600 Cuban competitors have followed a similar action in the last ten years.
The Cuban athletes who stayed in Chile (Photo: Andrés Pérez)
The situation is dramatic. “It will take eight years to see our families again. We cannot return to our country,” argues, for example, hockey player Yakira Guillén. “I stayed because I saw better opportunities to develop as an elite athlete,” she explains. And she links her upcoming sporting interests with the country that welcomes her. “I want to represent Chile, we want to be Chilean athletes,” she says, in relation to the possibility of joining Las Diablas.
Yurisan Socarrás, who defected in May, agrees with the reasons presented by Guillén. “One of the reasons why we left the delegation, not only me, but several of my colleagues, is the (lack) freedom of expression in our country and the repressive monitoring. They control us a lot as athletes. The situation is very difficult, at least on my part, as I was one of the first to desert,” he reveals. “We were two more companions,” he details. “My family didn’t know. Just one more person, my dad. He thought that he was not going to make that decision. It was a surprise situation. It was the first time that he traveled, that he left the country. He didn’t know how he was going to face the world. The decision was very complex,” he maintains.
In turn, Carta says that the decision was made while in Chile. “Since I saw the sporting expectations they have here, the resources they have to attend to sports, to hockey. My family was also not aware of my decision. It was a very hard decision. In the end, the family supports because they want the best for you. However, it is strange. It is a support, but it is strange. Here we are going to give our best. To represent Chile in any event that we can,” she says.
Illas remembers the race that took him to the podium. “The second one beat me by a tittle, by a head,” he reviews. “My decision was made while in Chile. I didn’t tell my family. Here I felt free, I liked it a lot. I wanted to open a new life,” he explains in the forum. “The most these cases have happened is from 2020 to now. You have to do it hidden, no one can see you. I finished competing on Friday. We were leaving on Sunday. On Saturday at 5 in the morning, a car picked me up. “Everyone was sleeping, no one saw me,” he details.
The passports of the athletes are retained by those in charge of the delegation. The exits were guarded. “They told me that at 6 in the morning they would pick me up. I had to leave half an hour early,” details Illas, regarding his plan.
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