The 22 year old Cesar Prieto Echevarria of the Cuban national baseball team escaped during a trip to Florida: he managed to break away from his group of 41 people, including managers, coaches and companions headed to West Palm Beach.
The Cuban baseball team arrived in Florida after long and difficult bureaucratic and political procedures to obtain a US visa and participate in the Olympic qualifiers on the American continent, starting Monday with Cuba-Venezuela.
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“His decision, contrary to his commitment to the people and the team, generated the anger of his teammates and other members of the delegation,” the Cuban Baseball Federation said in a statement. The young second baseman, who defected after arriving in Miami on Wednesday 27, is one of the strongest hitters and one of the most promising young talents in Cuban baseball. His desertion inevitably weakened his team.
Cuban sports reporter Francys Romero tweeted that Prieto jumped into a car upon arrival at the hotel in Miami, and flew off at speed.
Prieto is not the first Cuban athlete to take advantage of the trip to desert: a long list of talented young sportsmen fleeing the meager salaries of the Caribbean island and attracted by the millionaire contracts of the Major League. There will be eight American nations, from North to South, who will fight for only one place at the Tokyo Games.
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