Arequipa, Peru – The renowned Cuban former Cuban Felix Lemus denounced the abandonment of the Castro government and the bad living conditions with which he has been forced to survive on the island after retiring from sport.
Original of Cienfuegos, Lemus stood out in the quadrilaterals of the island during the last decades of the 70s and 80s, when he achieved several medals nationwide and other international recognitions.
In 2025, at 64, the experience works in the field. His life is distant from being comfortable or easy, a reality that describes the official regime press from the regret and disappointment.
“Some have been forgotten. Nobody cares about me, nor do they know where I am. I say it from the heart, when I was a athlete I was always ready to fight. I was a coach. I was sick and incapacitated, I retired for that. I am physical prevented, even if I do not seem like it. to the newspaper Diario Workers.
According to Lemus, his situation was known by the authorities, including the provincial government. Some time ago he asked for a change of housing because there were eight people in an apartment of just two rooms. However, he was forced to leave the city through the field “to subsist.”
“I never received an answer. Luckily my daughters managed to get yours thanks to their effort. Now I work this piece of land,” he says.
“In the city, with the little more than 3,000 pesos that I won, because they increased me by an internationalist combatant, it is impossible. My lady is operated on cancer and does not work, Nor does it have retirement (…) The Athlete Attention Commission has been a bathroom service. They promised to buy my slabs. Everything stayed there. ”
While Félix Lemus did not fight in Olympic Games or in World or Pan American Championships, he had other remarkable achievements. It was gold in Playa Girón and Giraldo Córdova Cardín, head of the Central American and Caribbean Championship of 1983 and won medals in several events in Europe.
However, despite his remarkable trajectory, just a few days ago the exboxer complains about a call from the municipality, local government body.
“He is in charge of what related to the glories. After taking some data, he said that I was a relevant figure and not sports glory. I don’t know what that is,” says Lemus with suspicion, shrugging his shoulders.
“I decided to retire with 27 years. I shocked with Alcides Sagarra (official boxing authority in Cuba). It was because of a health problem in my family. We argued, I recognize that I lacked respect, his attitude was not the best, they even separated me from the national team.”
“I came back in great way. On the 1986 beach I beat Jorge Luis González. I heard the anger that Alcides threw after the fight. The title took Stevenson. They had to return to the national team. I went to the tour of Europe and on the return I said so far I arrived!”, He said.
Between Other dissatisfactions And obstacles, Lemus condemned a particular motive that also contributed to the lack of opportunities on the island and his departure from sport.
“I felt racism. I tell the truth. In the boxing they did not lead the whites well. When training and deciding what competences they would go. If you claimed they said: it is by technical decision! It was not easy.”
“At some point in my career they were unfair to me. It is true that it was a complicated time for quality. I could have the opportunity in some Pan -American or other event. Being in an Olympic Games had been tremendous, but there was my friend Teófilo Stevenson, the greatest boxer of all time in Cuba. It was impossible,” he says.
