Baseball players Andy Ibanez and Yoan Lopez fled the Caribbean country eight years ago; they became professionals in the North American professional league Major League Baseball (MLB). Now the two have received an invitation from their Cuban home association to take part in a preparatory tournament for the World Baseball Classic, which is considered the world championship, in March next year. Cuban exile Elian Leyva, who plays in Mexico, was also nominated for Cuba’s selection.
Appointments are new
The three vocations are a novelty. In baseball in particular, however, a weakening of the anti-professional sports doctrine imposed by Cuba’s former dictator Fidel Castro has been registered for around ten years. In 2013, baseball players were generally permitted to play with professional clubs abroad. Five years later, the MLB even came to an agreement with Cuba’s association that players from Cuba could play in the strongest league in the world and their association would receive payments from the MLB for this.
Cubans third-strongest legionnaire group in US baseball
However, the administration of then US President Donald Trump suspended the agreement because of the sanctions regime against Cuba. Yet this past MLB season, 23 Cuban players among the 275 players registered for the season opener were already the third strongest group among the “Legionnaires.”
Most recently, there had been a wave of illegal departures or attempted escapes by top athletes in Cuba. Just last year, around half of Cuba’s U23 national team broke away from the team at the Baseball World Cup in Mexico. Several boxers and track and field athletes also turned their backs on their home country in an illegal manner.
This message was broadcast on Deutschlandfunk on November 15, 2022.
