7 Cuban footballers abandon team, defect to U.S.

[R_P_A_S]

Not sure if you guys are following the North American regional Olympic qualifiers. But Cuba always presents a very decent and capable squad! They were expected by many of the analyst to make it to the semifinals for the Olympics. They started the first game tying the U.S. 1-1 and after the game 7 players deserted the team and defected to the U.S. (the games were being played in Tampa)

This cause Cuba to play the nest game with ONLY 10 MEN, and NO SUBSTITUTES, since one got a red car in the prior match. FIFA suggested Cuba to forfeit, but The Cuban Squad came out and played with only 10 men the following game against Honduras which they lost, and finished with 11 men again no Substitues against Panama and also lost, which left them out of the Olympics.

Now I understand that economic hardships and the need to want to leave Cuba for the U.S. but.. I don't know, there's just something a bit sinister about going on the rigth wing latino TV giant UNIVISION as soon as you defect and proclaiming your interest in playing for the U.S. league, (MLS) and at the same time doing interviews with them talking about you wanted Cuba "to make it to the Olympics."

These guys.. I don't know.... I hate to judge them. but They left their team mates to be pretty much ridicule by the other teams not only in the final score.. but in the eyes of many people.. its just sad..

[RedStarOverChina]

They are traitors and I hope the Cuban government confiscate all their property in Cuba.

They won't be needing it anyway.

[spartan]

Well it looks like the "magic" of the west lured them away.

Whats worse is that they will probably never get the chance to see that the "magic" of the west is just a lie because they will get paid millions by the MLS and probably the US government for defecting, so they will never see the real side of this "magic" (i.e. rampant homelessness, organized crime, huge gap between rich and poor, always the threat of losing your job, bills you cant pay, etc).

All in all they are all a bunch of greedy inhumane bastards who dont deserve to breath the same air as everyone else.

[Guerrilla Manila]

Most countries punish treason with death ...


Raul should send a hit squad after them :cool:

[Sankofa]

Spartan's post is absolutely on point. Cuban athletes have a history of defecting to the United States; the primary factor being monetary gain.

Fuck socialism and the Cuban revolution; They can become millionaires and get a mansion in Miami right next to the Gusanos.

[BobKKKindle$]

The United States is happy to accept these defectors, because it lets them claim that the conditions in Cuba are so bad that when anyone is given the opportunity to abandon Cuba, they will take advantage of that opportunity.

The US has adopted a policy which actually encourages people to flee from Cuba - anyone who is able to make it to the US is automatically given the benefits which are accorded to Refugees who have been awarded asylum, including the right of abode. This applies to immigrants who would not normally be classified as Refugees - someone is only given refugee status if they can prove that they are not able to secure the protection of the state in the country of origin. Most of the people who have fled to the Us have done so for economic reasons (not political persecution) and would not have risked their lives crossing the ocean if it were not for this politically-motivated policy.

If a similar policy were adopted for other countries, there would be a sudden flood of illegal immigrants, far exceeding the number of people who have tried to make it to the US from Cuba.

[black magick hustla]

Some of you people are goddamn stupid.

If you are soccer player, and you get offered millions of dollars by the yanquis, you are going to defect. It has nothing to do with being a "traitor", or whatever nice term an you folks can shoot at them. Funny thing is that all of you people live in the first world, with all the comforts that come with it, and then when a Cuban obviously wants to get a better lifestyle, you shoot him down.

There is nothing terribly wrong with Cuba (at least, comparing it with other capitalist countries), but this people chose what was obvious for them.

[RedStarOverChina]

Some of you people are goddamn stupid.

If you are soccer player, and you get offered millions of dollars by the yanquis, you are going to defect. It has nothing to do with being a "traitor", or whatever nice term an you folks can shoot at them.

Duh!

I know it's because of Yankee money.

That's what makes them traitors.

[Leo]

That's what makes them traitors.

Traitors to what?

[RedStarOverChina]

Traitors to the Cuban people, of course.

In case you didn't know, US imperialism has waged a 40 year-long war against the Cuban people. And this is part of that war.

They want to break the spirit of the Cubans.

[R_P_A_S]

like I mention on my 1st post. Im not one to judge those guys heavily.. I can understand them wanting to 'have more opportunities' and chance to live better or whatever.. But I just think it's fucked up how they pretty much abandon their team after the 1st game. cripple the entire Cuban strategy to make it to the Olympics... and right after they flee they go on Univision and are offered all this cool contracts and then have the never to say that they "really wanted to make it to the olympics".. BAH!:rolleyes:

[Leo]

Traitors to the Cuban people, of course.It is simply ridiculous to say that those people have done anything to Cuban workers. They are neither heroes nor traitors to them, what they did has no effect on the living conditions of the Cuban working class.

They embarrassed the Cuban bourgeoisie a bit as this thing got on the world news, but even for them it's not the end of the world.

What one could say is that they are traitors to is their team mates, but this has got nothing to do with politics anyway.


In case you didn't know, US imperialism has waged a 40 year-long war against the Cuban people. And this is part of that war. Actually this isn't really true: American imperialism did really focus on Cuba as it was an outpost of another imperialism, that is the Russian one, which was dangerously close to them. Now that they won over the Russians, they have better economical relations with them, although obviously the two countries don't politically or ideologically love each other.


They want to break the spirit of the Cubans.This is a ridiculous thing to say as well. They don't want to "break the spirit of Cubans" or anything, all they want is to live a more comfortable life.

[manic expression]

This is very sad to see on many levels. The Cuban National Team was doing really well before this happened (they tied the US 1-1, a big surprise). However, the remaining players (playing without any subs or replacements) bravely finished the tournament and did their cause proud. The players who didn't defect can hold their heads with pride, while the newly crowned gusanos will try their best to make money off their betrayal.

I was hoping that this would end like it did with those two boxers. Awhile ago, two Cuban boxers "defected" in South America, got "contracts" with a few eager sports agents, spent a few nights in five-star hotels and ran up a HUGE bill, then promptly returned to Cuba and left the agents to pay their bill for them. Genius.


Whats worse is that they will probably never get the chance to see that the "magic" of the west is just a lie because they will get paid millions by the MLS...

MLS doesn't pay most players nearly that much; only a few: Beckham, Juan Pablo Angel, Landon Donovan and some others. Maybe they'll discover the "magic" of capitalism on their own when they get a $12,000/year development contract at some MLS or USL-1 club (and yes, MLS pays some players that little).

[RedStarOverChina]

It is simply ridiculous to say that those people have done anything to Cuban workers. They are neither heroes nor traitors to them, what they did has no effect on the living conditions of the Cuban working class.

I said the US is trying to break the spirit of the Cubans, using them as propaganda against the Cuban revolution.

I don't find it hard to see that.



This is a ridiculous thing to say as well. They don't want to "break the spirit of Cubans" or anything, all they want is to live a more comfortable life.

If it's an average Cuban worker/farmer trying to get a better live in Miami I won't blame him at all.

But when it's about national athletes trained and fed by the Cuban people, it's completely different. This has a political dimension to it, believe it or not. They are being used to denounce Cuba.




I was hoping that this would end like it did with those two boxers. Awhile ago, two Cuban boxers "defected" in South America, got "contracts" with a few eager sports agents, spent a few nights in five-star hotels and ran up a HUGE bill, then promptly returned to Cuba and left the agents to pay their bill for them. Genius.


Really? That's what happened? Nice! :lol:

[BIG BROTHER]

I agree with Vaginal residue. They've betrayed their people.

[Ferryman 5]

There's nothing new or particularly interesting about the CIA's capacity to buy and sell people from anti- imperialist camps. They bought Gorbachev, his posh wife and the entire Soviet Union for a couple of 'Gold Cards'. "Money talks". They will make some propaganda about people "escaping brutal communism" on this purchase. This is still all superficial stuff that looks a bit convincing, but will never play any significant part in real battles ahead.

The new difficult material conditions of the workers in the U.S and Europe are really going influence the revolutionary consciousness of the world more than any amount of trivial gossip about puffed-up sports personalities or other self obsessed defectors from socialism.

[BIG BROTHER]

I really hope your words carry some truth ferryman.

[Ferryman 5]

I really hope your words carry some truth ferryman.
We're all Victims and Accomplices of the capitalist system... you say, josefrancisco

This would be true and you would be absolutely correct only if we had the same "shock and awe" power that our oppressor's possess.

But we do not have the same power as our oppressors so we are not "Accomplices" .

And the 'other' anti-imperialist fighters who are not like 'us' should not be attacked by "us" just because we think they are twats, for whatever reason.

We are going to talk to each other, we are going to argue and we are going to develop the necessary state that will protect us from exploitation in order that we can win the world for our children.

[Guerrilla Manila]

If a US citizen accepted 1 million dollars to join Al Qaeda, Most Americans would demand his head on a plate.


Cuba should kidnap and extradite these a$$holes ... and then ... "Send them to the wall"

[Guerrilla22]

The interesting thing is the US would not allow Haitian sports players to simply defect, they would have to get visas like everyone else (the US is currently holding up the visas of Venezuelan baseball players trying to get into the US) even though Haiti is a complete hell hole and Cuba is better off than most of Latin America.

[bootleg42]

Usually with the sports stars of Cuba, many sports agents from western countries (mainly the U.S. and Germany) try to infiltrate scouts in the island to pick players. Then they illegally go up to the player and they tell him that if he was to defect, they could get them millions, etc (of course not every case is true but the scout makes it seem as such).

Then the scout gives the player a contact if he/she is interested and then whenever the player is outside the country competing, they have the opportunity to contact the such scout.

These agents and scouts are huge millionaires, big time capitalists who just like going to third world countries to exploit potential talent. It's just harder for them to get the talent from Cuba when compared to getting talent from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela etc. They use dirty and sneaky tactics.

If anyone wants to read of an example, read of the Cuban baseball player "el Duque" Orlando Hernandez who todays plays for the New York Mets. He had relations with Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) which is a huge right-wing organization who basically lives to destroy Cuba today. Here's their site and they mention the futbol players on it:

http://canf1.org/cgi-bin/artman/search.cgi?action=search&page=1&perpage=5&template=articleLists/categoryIndex.html&categoryNum=33

These sports agents are real assholes and big time cappies who basically are in the front line (with the Miami crowd) of destroying Cuba and turning it to a country like the Dominican Republic, DIRT poor but full of potential sports talent.

[redarmyfaction38]

Usually with the sports stars of Cuba, many sports agents from western countries (mainly the U.S. and Germany) try to infiltrate scouts in the island to pick players. Then they illegally go up to the player and they tell him that if he was to defect, they could get them millions, etc (of course not every case is true but the scout makes it seem as such).

Then the scout gives the player a contact if he/she is interested and then whenever the player is outside the country competing, they have the opportunity to contact the such scout.

These agents and scouts are huge millionaires, big time capitalists who just like going to third world countries to exploit potential talent. It's just harder for them to get the talent from Cuba when compared to getting talent from the Dominican Republic or Venezuela etc. They use dirty and sneaky tactics.

If anyone wants to read of an example, read of the Cuban baseball player "el Duque" Orlando Hernandez who todays plays for the New York Mets. He had relations with Cuban-American National Foundation (CANF) which is a huge right-wing organization who basically lives to destroy Cuba today. Here's their site and they mention the futbol players on it:

http://canf1.org/cgi-bin/artman/search.cgi?action=search&page=1&perpage=5&template=articleLists/categoryIndex.html&categoryNum=33

These sports agents are real assholes and big time cappies who basically are in the front line (with the Miami crowd) of destroying Cuba and turning it to a country like the Dominican Republic, DIRT poor but full of potential sports talent.

precisely.
capitalism does not play by the rules, it picks those individuals that will give them the most publicity and make it appear that socialism doesn't work and all human beings are venal. it disregards all the "imigration conditions" in order to further its political and economic ambitions.
c'mon comrades, let's not be naive or even vindictive over this, lets just talk about the truth, none of those footballers would have probably recieved the training and support they needed in the usa had they been born there.
the fact that a poor country like cuba can produce so many athletes, doctors, teachers and actually survive as a nation in a hostile capitalist world is testimony to the value of socialist morality and economics.
as for the footballers themselves, well we know from painful experience that individuals can be turned by the prospect of personal wealth and material gain, and the usa is particularly adept at convincing individuals they are more important than the people that raised and educated them.