MIAMI, United States. – Cuban-American Congressman Mario Díaz-Balart, in his position as Chairman of the Subcommittee on State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs of the United States House of Representatives, addressed a letter to Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Thursday, in which he requests information about the “supervisors” who traveled to Miami with the island’s baseball team and asks if they were investigated for links to the regime and the Cuban Army.
On twitterDíaz-Balart shared the letter addressed to Blinken and expressed his outrage that the Joe Biden government allows “the Cuban regime to export its shameful exploitation of Cuban baseball players to the United States.”
The congressman also asked for explanations about how the policy of allowing Cuban baseball players and their “supervisors” to enter the United States was consistent with Washington’s policy to end human trafficking and prevent the derived income from enriching to the oppressors of the Cuban people.
“I would also like to know which Cuban nationals traveled with the team and if any of them are known to violate human rights, and if they were investigated for their ties to the regime and the Cuban Army,” Díaz-Balart wrote.
In his letter, the Cuban-born politician also recalled that the State Department’s own 2022 Report on Trafficking in Persons had included Cuba as a “level 3 country for its inability to respect minimum labor standards” and had pointed out “concerns about the vulnerability of ‘Cuban economic migrants, including cases of professional baseball players’ who were subject to human trafficking”.
“The report further compared the regime’s exploitative medical missions program to other exploited professions, claiming that the regime ‘benefited from other similar coercive labor export programs, including teachers, artists, athletes, sports coaches, engineers, technicians foresters and almost 7,000 merchant seafarers around the world,” said Díaz-Balart.
He also recalled that “those individuals who run the Cuban Baseball Federation are part of the same regime that oppresses the Cuban people. One of the former vice presidents of the Federation, for example, is Antonio Castro, son of the late dictator Fidel Castro.
“According to press reports, [Antonio Castro] He also came to the United States on behalf of the regime to recruit players living in freedom and advocate for Cuban players who escaped the regime’s tyranny to return to Cuba to play for the national team,” he said.
For the politician, representative of Florida’s 25th Congressional District, “like other exploited trades, such as Cuban medical professionals sent abroad, Cuban baseball players are carefully monitored by ‘supervisors’ to ensure that they do not desert. Often their passports are confiscated and their families are prohibited from traveling with them as an added deterrent measure,” he lamented.
Díaz-Balart also warned that “the Cuban regime will use this event as yet another method to exercise control over the people, generate income for its oppression machine, and expand its audience for propaganda.”
“I find it shameful that the State Department has decided to promote this event, including granting visas to regime operatives who abuse and control Cuban baseball players. Unfortunately, the Biden administration now has the dubious distinction of being complicit in both exploiting Cuban athletes and amplifying the regime’s propaganda,” he concluded.
The Cuban team that participates in the V World Baseball Classic arrived this Thursday in Miamiwhere they will play against the United States or Venezuela (depending on the results of this Friday), next Sunday, March 19.
