Escapes: The first Cuban escape in the Central American Games in Santo Domingo

Havana/Field hockey goalkeeper Moisés David Torres Puig left the Cuban delegation participating in the Central American and Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo this Friday, a few hours before the official opening of the tournament and without having played a game.

The departure of the athlete, a native of Las Tunas and the youngest of the men’s team, was revealed by sports journalist Yasel Porto, who claimed to have received an audio from the player himself and confirmed the case with sources close to the delegation.

According to the version released by Porto, Torres Puig took advantage of the fact that the men’s team was in a stadium watching a match of the women’s team. The goalkeeper pretended to have been hit by a ball during training and asked for ice to treat the alleged injury. Shortly after, he indicated that he was going to throw the ice into a container located in one of the facility’s hallways. Another person was waiting for him there, with whom he exchanged clothes before walking out of the premises and leaving in a vehicle requested through the Uber application.

The story also reflects the strict surveillance to which Cuban athletes are usually subjected during their trips abroad.

“I made the decision to stay here in the Dominican Republic and break all ties with the Cuban delegation,” is heard in the audio attributed to the athlete, cited by DPorto Sports News. The story also reflects the strict surveillance to which Cuban athletes are usually subjected during their trips abroad, accompanied by coaches, managers and other “responsible persons” of the delegation who control their movements. “I was very nervous in case they discovered me,” Torres Puig confessed.

The young man appeared on the team’s roster along with Ignacio Miguel Aroche O’Farrill, the other goalkeeper called up for the competition. His departure leaves the team with only one goalkeeper available before their first match, scheduled for the tournament that takes place between the end of July and the first days of August.

The absence represents an additional problem for the coaching staff, who will have to face the entire competition with Aroche O’Farrill, unless the organizers allow a substitute to be incorporated outside the established deadline. No sports authority has yet clarified whether Cuba will request a replacement or whether Torres Puig has been formally removed from accreditation.

The young man was not a player incorporated at the last minute. In April 2024, he was chosen as the best goalkeeper at the National Field Hockey Championship, held in Ciego de Ávila, where the team from that province retained the men’s title. His performance placed him among the country’s most promising goalkeepers. He had also received special recognition from the Las Tunas sports authorities for his results during 2023.

Just a week before his departure from the country, the official press of Las Tunas had included his home among the so-called Central American Houses, a propaganda initiative with which provincial authorities identify the homes of athletes and coaches who participate in international competitions. In the case of Torres Puig, the gesture became an irony: while the authorities publicly celebrated his “sense of belonging”, the athlete prepared his escape.

The abandonment is the first known within the Cuban delegation during the Santo Domingo Games, but comes after a new wave of escapes in sports on the Island. In recent weeks, several members of the national canoeing team They abandoned the concentration during a competition held in Canada, which affected the composition of the boats planned for the Central Americans.

Every international trip continues to be, for many athletes, an opportunity to escape from the Island

Field hockey has also suffered numerous defections. Five players left the Cuban delegation during the Pan American Games of Santiago de Chilein 2023, while other members of the team had previously left the team during a stay in Spain.

In each case, the sports authorities have repeated their usual formula and have described the decisions as “serious indiscipline” or abandonment of commitments, without referring to the low salaries, the lack of professional opportunities and the restrictions suffered by athletes within the Island, not to mention the crisis suffered by the majority of the population.

Santo Domingo had to serve the Cuban Government to showcase an ambitious delegation and contain the decline in its regional results. However, each international trip continues to be, for many athletes, an opportunity to escape from the Island.