Sports traffickers profit from U.S. blockade of Cuba
• Police operation in the Dominican Republic uncovers trafficking organization specializing in Cuban baseball players

Oscar Sánchez Serra

SEVEN people arrested for trafficking in Cuban ballplayers; Detained for arranging departures of Cuban ballplayers; Authorities uncover criminal organization involved in human trafficking; Focus on baseball players and their families in Cuba…

These headlines, from June 2-3, announced news of an operation carried out in the Dominican Republic by the Criminal Intelligence Central Directorate (DINTEL), in collaboration with the country’s Attorney General, which uncovered a group of seven persons who worked together to establish contacts with baseball players in Cuba, get them out of the country, negotiate contracts with Major League teams in the United States for them and extract tidy sums in profits for themselves, in the process.

Despite the sensation, and the release of the group on probation, the event reveals nothing new, just the ongoing attack on Cuban baseball. The news only confirms the fact that harassment and theft of our talented athletes continues.

The reasons are straightforward. Baseball is Cuba’s national sport, it draws the people together, unleashes great emotion, joy and pride, as seen recently during the National Series play-offs… and this bothers some.

What do the names tell us? Manuel Antonio Azcona, Edgar Mercedes, Héctor Ferreira, Pedro Delgado, Ernesto Guidi, Roberto Rodríguez, Yuniel Rodríguez – the seven charged by DINTEL and the Dominican Attorney General’s Office.

Nothing. They are only the shopkeepers taking advantage of an opportunity created, tolerated and promoted by United States policy which favors this type of criminal human trafficking with legislation like the Cuban Adjustment Act.

The news reminded me of a May, 1999, press conference, held prior to the Cuban national team’s game against the Baltimore Orioles, where shortstop Luis Ulacia answered the questions: Wouldn’t Cuban baseball players like to play in the U.S. Major Leagues? Why are you prevented from doing so?

The ballplayer from Camagüey responded, "Yes, we would like to, but it is you all (the U.S.) who are stopping us. If I want to play here, why do I have to take off and cross the sea on a raft, leave my family or look for someone later, to take my children across that same sea, negotiate with someone, give them money. Why do I have to denounce my country and abandon it?"

Cuban ballplayers, coaches and sports authorities know very well that they must improve baseball here, because of what it represents for the country, so much a part of our national identity. However, it is this very national identity which prohibits us from renouncing any principles for the sake of any such improvement.