Another Cuban defects

A source close to the Cuban team said Reyes remained under police protection after seeking asylum.

The Cuban team is being housed at the southport athletes village outside of Winnipeg. It was expected to be subjected to heavy security measures after five members of the Cuban basketball delegation defected at the tournament of the Americas in Puerto Rico last week.

Cuban National baseball team pitching coach Rigoberto Betancourt Herrera defected in May following an exhibition game victory against US Major League Baseball’s Orioles in Baltimore.

In an interview before the defection occurred, Brian Koshul, press secretary for the PanAmerican Games Society Inc., said games officials would not actively assist athletes wishing to defect.

“They do not take them for a coke, they do not hide them in the trunk of a car, they do not hide them in the attic,” he said. “Our only contact with applicants for refugee status is (to say) `Mr Police officer, this person wants to speak with you.’ ”

Koshul said that Cuban athletes would be given the same security at the games as all the other athletes.

“We don’t protect them with machine guns,” he said.

“We are aware that at these games there could be” athletes who would defect. “We’re not closing our eyes to that,” Koshul said.

Mario Vasquez Rana, president of the Pan American Sports Organisation, said he was unaware of any defections.

Dozens of Cuba’s top athletes have defected during international competitions in recent years.

One of the most prominent was baseball pitcher Orlando `E Duque’ Hernandez, who fled Cuba in December 1997 and signed with MLB’s New York Yankees. Otherdefectors include Hernandez’s half-brother, Livan Hernandez of the Florida Marlins, and US Major Leaguers Rene Arocha, Osvaldo Fernandez, Rey Ordonez, Ariel Prieto and Rolando Arrojo.

In July 1998, three Cuban swimmers left a training camp in Puerto Rico and defected. Jose Perez defected after winning the bronze medal in the 400-metre hurdles during a San Juan meet in 1997.

In May, baseball coach Rigoberto Betancourt Herrera defected during the Cuban national team’s visit to the United States for a game against the Baltimore Orioles.