Cuba: seven athletes will seek refuge in Chile after PanAmericano – 11/07/2023 – Sport

Seven Cuban athletes will seek asylum, or refuge, in Chile, after deciding to remain in the country after the end of the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago, their lawyer, Mijail Bonito, told AFP this Tuesday (7).

“There are seven athletes, six women and one man, who will ask for refuge, or asylum, and this is something that we will determine throughout today,” said the lawyer.

According to the Chilean press, there are six members of the women’s field hockey team and a hurdler who won the bronze medal in the games that ended on Sunday (5).

“Their main intention is to remain in Chile,” said the lawyer from the Hurtado y Bonito Abogados firm, which represents the athletes.

I took on this case “for a personal reason, because I was born in Cuba”, he added.

He explained that he contacted the seven athletes as soon as they left the Cuban delegation that was staying at the Pan-American Village in Santiago.

Now “none of them are in Santiago. They are staying with friends, in support groups in three different regions” of the country, said Bonito.

The athletes have visas to stay in Chile until November 12, but they do not have a passport. The documents were retained by sports directors upon entering the country in mid-October.

The serious economic crisis that Cuba is going through has caused a mass exodus in the last two years, mainly of young people. According to official data, from 2022 until now, the number of emigrants in high-performance sports is 187 athletes, including more than a dozen boxers, including the star Andy Cruz, considered by many to be the best boxer in the country.

Cuban athletics has been one of the hardest hit by leaks, which have affected national sport for several years and which have increased with the current economic crisis, the worst in three decades.