SAN LUIS POTOSÍ, Mexico.-A Cuban baseball team coach Santa Clara, who participated in the Little League World Series (LLWS) in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, absconded from the delegation to the United States.
According to the sports portal Cuban BallCarlos César Martínez remained with the team until last Saturday, when he decided to stay on U.S. soil. Presumably, the Cuban would have met with his brother, who lives there.
The baseball players of the Santa Clara Bombers team arrived in Cuba on Monday and were welcomed by the population in a mass event organized by the regime so that the residents of Villa Clara would fill the streets and applaud the arrival of the children.
The other two coaches of the Cuban squad, Everaldo Pedroso and Andy Zamora, returned with them.
The infantry had lost to representatives from Matamoros, Mexico.
The Lake Mary Stars from Florida won the event after defeating Taipei from China.
The number of Cuban athletes and coaches leaving the country continues to rise in a context marked by the crisis in sports in Cuba and an unprecedented wave of migration.
Last year, José Alberto Pérez González, one of the coaches of the Bayamo team in the 2023 Little League Baseball World Series, also left the Cuban delegation in the United States.
Pérez González escaped from the place where they were staying in Williamsport, Pennsylvania, and did so “taking advantage of the darkness of the night, he escaped from the place where the players and coaches of the competition are staying, although his current whereabouts are unknown.”
The event’s communications director told reporters that Little League International had reached out to all appropriate authorities at the time to ensure the Bayamo Little League team continued to have the best support and experience while in Williamsport.
More recently, the Cuban goalkeeper Leonardo Hierrezuelo, The 22-year-old escaped from the national futsal team while in Huelva, Spain, where the team is preparing for the 2024 World Cup in Uzbekistan.
With the departure of Hierrezuelo, the Cuban team is left with only one goalkeeper, Kevin Rueda from Sancti Spiritus.
This “defection” follows that of Harold Aguilera, who left the team less than a week ago after a friendly match against Ukraine in Viseu, Portugal.
