The truth is that the expectation is created. And a peaceful demonstration is expected inside and outside the sports facility.
The mayor of Miami, Francis Suárez, reported that the Marlins team gave his authorization for fans who wish to enter the stadium with banners, Cuban flags and shirts that bear the inscription “Patria y vida.”
“For me this is much bigger than Cuba, it has to do with the virus of socialism and communism, which is a hoax,” Suárez said.
“The only equality there is (in Cuba) is that of poverty and misery,” he added.
At the height of the fifth inning, there was an altercation with the influencer Alexander Otaola.
For his part, the commissioner of the city of Miami, Manolo Reyes, pointed out that the media and institutions that in recent days have asked not to mix sports and politics extend this claim to Cuba, where “everything is politicized, from sports and culture to education.
“Our fight is not against the baseball players, our fight is against the regime that enslaves all Cubans. We call on the baseball players to express solidarity with that people who are persecuted, repressed and imprisoned,” said Orlando Gutiérrez, of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance, during the press conference.
The director of the Cuba team, Armando Jhonson, avoided talking about the political issue prior to tonight’s crucial game between the Cuban and US teams. When asked by DIARIO LAS AMERICAS whether they had received any kind of guidance on how to deal with the protest environment, he only managed to launch an evasion previously constructed with the surgical style of Cuban state security.
Randy Arozarena YES is from “Patria y Vida”
Randy Arozarena’s life is a reflection of the ordeal of the Cuban people. Escape in search of freedom and opportunities. Leaving loved ones behind, slurping up the nostalgia. Within the framework of the 2023 World Baseball Classic, he has become a kind of symbol of exile, to the detriment of the servility of the members of the ninth of the largest of the Antilles.
As if that were not enough, he is perhaps the best Cuban player, and he does not play with Cuba, but rather defends the colors of Mexico as a show of gratitude to the country that welcomed him with open arms. Arozarena was named the most valuable player of Group C in the qualifying stage and with a superb catch he contributed to the achievement of the semifinals.
“I escaped from Cuba in 2015 and arrived in Mexico. I had my family there. Now I have a Mexican daughter whom I love, I have also played with many teammates on this team in the Major Leagues. Mexico received me like a son. That is why I asked the fans and the President to allow me to be a Mexican citizen to represent the country in the World Baseball Classic. Today I have this possibility, this opportunity and I feel grateful”, said Arozarena.
“May I win to face us in the final and look…[se pasa el dedo índice por el cuello como gesto lapidario como diciendo matarlos en la final]. I would like to face Cuba in the final. I hope they win.”
Referring to the quality of the Antillean squad, he maintained “they themselves don’t know how they went from group to group’…but that’s baseball. They’ve won the big games and they’re going to fight against the United States now.”
In a conversation with DIARIO LAS AMERICAS, he stated: “I am from Patria y Vida, from Randy y Vida” before emphasizing that he would never play with the team of the country where he was born. Arozarena is one of the athletes with the greatest activism on social networks.
Randy’s words contrast with those of the Cienfuegos baseball player Yoan Moncada, who plays for the Cuba team in the V Baseball Classic, responded evasively to a question from Radio Television Martí regarding whether he also said “Patria y Vida”.
Moncada, a player for the Chicago White Sox team in the Major Leagues, told the journalist that he could not answer that question because he is a baseball player “and I have nothing to do with it.”
Meanwhile, outside the LoanDepot Park, free Cubans begin to gather for the peaceful protest that was called. Ramón Saúl Sánchez, leader of the Democracy movement, assured that “our fight is against the dictatorship, now they want to sell us baseball as diplomacy, but we are not going to allow it.”
A massive demonstration is expected both outside and inside the stadium.
The protest will be “against the imprisonment of political prisoners, against the oppression of the dictatorship against its own people, against the abuses of human rights in the country.”
The activist predicted that players would drop out of the Cuban team and conveyed the message that “exile will always welcome you with open arms.”
As for what will happen during the exile demonstration, he warned that the regime could use them “as a kind of trap.”
“Several things are going to be happening. The first of all is that those images (of the game) are going to be seen in Cuba by part of the population and the second is that the rest of the world is also going to be seeing us; and we cannot forget something else: the agents of the dictatorship are going to try to agitate (the demonstration) in a destructive way to cause damage to the image of the Cuban exile as if we were irrational people who attacked athletes who come to play here on the lands of a democratic country,” he said.
“The best way to leave those agents and the dictatorship dressed and planted, is using that important moment where the eyes of many inside and outside of Cuba and the international press will be on that game and on us, to remind them to the world that this dictatorship has imprisoned more than 1,000 young Cubans for merely going out with a phone to record a demonstration or participating in a peaceful demonstration, that it has divided our nation, that each family is divided and that rafters continue to die in the Strait of Florida (…) and that (the regime) have inserted terror into the Cuban national fabric”.
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Meanwhile, the activist Nardelis Sánchez called to demonstrate for all the Cuban political prisoners who “are extremely oppressed, imprisoned, harassed, tortured.”
Regarding the possible reactions of the public during the match, baseball player Alfredo Despaigne, captain of the Cuba team, expressed confidence that the team will receive “one hundred percent” support, while Yadir Drake, another member of the team, opined that each who had the right to support or protest.
See the results of the World Baseball Classic by clicking on https://www.flashscore.com.mx/beisbol/mundial/clasico-mundial-de-beisbol/
