Posted on Wed, Aug. 08, 2007
BY WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press
HAVANA --
Fidel Castro might bar Cuban boxers from competing in the world
championships in Chicago and other qualifying events leading to the
Beijing Olympics to prevent possible defections.
Castro wrote in a column published in official newspapers that two Cuban
boxers who disappeared during the Pan American Games in Brazil last
month only to be arrested and sent back to the island ''had reached the
point of no return'' with the national boxing team.
''The athlete who abandons his delegation is not unlike the soldier who
abandons his fellow men in the midst of combat,'' he said.
Guillermo Rigondeaux, Cuba's top boxer and a two-time Olympic
bantamweight champion, and Erislandy Lara, an amateur welterweight world
champion, arrived Sunday in Cuba. They were sent to state guest houses
for more than two days, then released while the communist government
decides what to do with them.
Rigondeaux returned to the Havana apartment he shares with his family
Wednesday, saying he never intended to defect. Lara's family lives in
the easternmost province of Guantánamo and could not be immediately located.
''I was always ready to return to the fatherland,'' Rigondeaux told The
Associated Press at his apartment. ``People didn't believe I would stay.''
He called his disappearance in Brazil a moment of great ''indiscipline''
and said he supports Castro's Cuban revolution wholeheartedly: ``I am
very revolutionary.''
The boxer's relatives said they never doubted he would return, painting
his home and preparing to feast on a pig to celebrate his homecoming.
Castro said Cuban officials were compiling the list of fighters for the
2008 Olympics, a squad that was scheduled to compete in the amateur
world championships in Chicago in October and two other qualifying
events before heading to China.
''Just picture the mafia sharks lurking about in search of fresh meat,''
Castro wrote of would-be promoters who could try to persuade Cuban
fighters to desert.
He said Cuban sports officials hoping to prevent defections are
``analyzing all possible alternatives, including the option of changing
the list of boxers or of not sending any delegation whatsoever, in spite
of the penalties that may be in store for us.''
''Cuba will not sacrifice one bit of honor, nor any of its ideas, for
Olympic gold medals,'' Castro wrote. ``The morale and patriotism of its
athletes shall prevail above all else.''
Boxing is the sport in which Cuba garners the most medals in major
international events. At the 2004 Athens Games, Cuba had five boxing
golds among its total of nine.
German boxing promoter Arena had announced it signed Lara and Rigondeaux
to five-year contracts, but the fighters were arrested in the coastal
resort city of Cabo Frio for overstaying their visas. The fighters told
police they wanted to return to Cuba and hinted they were tricked into
deserting, maybe even drugged by promoters.
Rigondeaux refused to elaborate on what happened in Brazil. ''I don't
want to remember those moments. Those are sad moments,'' he said.
Castro, who turns 81 on Monday, has not been seen in public since ceding
power to his younger brother in July 2006. But he is now writing essays
every few days, and previously blamed American money for Rigondeaux and
Lara's disappearance, saying they were ``knocked down with a blow
straight to the chin, paid up with U.S. bills.''
He wrote Wednesday that Cuba's government ''kept its word,'' treating
the deported boxers humanely. He hinted that after the boxers conducted
interviews with state media, official were not convinced Rigondeaux and
Lara sincerely wanted to return to Cuba before their arrests.
Castro blamed the disappearances on Lara, writing that ``who, as captain
of the boxing team, broke the rules and played directly into the hands
of the mercenaries.''
He also cited news reports from Brazil in writing that, during their
12-day absence, the pair holed up in a resort hotel with German
promoters and three prostitutes. ''These are uncomfortable but essential
details,'' he wrote. ``I imagine the boxers informed their closest,
adult relatives about these facts.''
Rigondeaux said he met with top Communist Party members since his return
and was waiting for ''reorientation,'' so he can do ''what the superiors
say.'' But he said he also hoped to fight again someday.
''I want to reclaim my titles,'' he said. ``Retake what I've lost.''
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/196616.html
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