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Baseball and freedom... made in Miami

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Imagine that the US baseball team plays in Cuba

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and protests are organized from the organizations of the Cuban Revolution

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against it for being

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the "team of imperialism and the blockade" against the Island.

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Imagine that the governor of Havana encourages the population

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to fill the Latin American Stadium with posters and that the press

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and television repeat incessantly that baseball players represent

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a genocidal and murderous empire, a plutocracy

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and a regime that violates human rights.

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It would be, in addition to an injustice against some athletes,

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a stupid politicization of baseball

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that would generate a great political and media scandal.

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But if this happens the other way around, politicization and injustice

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do not equal scandal. As an example, what happened this Sunday


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in the Cuba-USA game of the World Baseball Classic in Miami.

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There, the local authorities, the anti-Castro ultra-right wing

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and the media constantly

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harassed the Cuban team for "representing the repressive Castro regime".

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One day before the game, the presenter of the América TV channel even

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asked for the banning of the game,

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adding to the political stew… Russia! “We have asked ourselves,

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couldn't it be prevented (the game)? Because is the stadium public or is it private?”.

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"The stadium is public, the owner is Miami-Dade County".

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“It is a term that was used in the Obama era,

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'baseball politics'.

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In fact, Obama went to a ball game (in Cuba). It is part of this whole rapprochement (which is) against logic,

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because Cuba continues to be an ally of Russia".

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The most ridiculous anti-Castros used a steamroller to destroy

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the Cuban team's bats and gloves, and others supported the opposing team,

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the US team, with their shouts!

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"We hope that the Castro dictatorship will be defeated

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on this pitch," declared the "dissident" Antúnez.

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Francis Suárez, the mayor of Miami, reported that his pressure

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on the Marlins team, which manages the stadium,

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no one would be prevented from entering "with banners (...) and t-shirts"

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with "the inscription `Homeland and life'".

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It´s on stake, he assured, "the virus of socialism and communism,

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which is a hoax" and put a new enemy in the pottage:

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the "involvement of China in the western hemisphere”.

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Suárez denounced that in Cuba "people cannot express themselves freely",

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in the face of "freedom as a fundamental right in the US".

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Freedom? Let's see.

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The baseball players of the Cuba team who reside in the US

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were prohibited from traveling to the island for the previous training sessions

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and if they had won

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they would not have been able to celebrate the victory in their country either.

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Fear of the boycott made several of the Cuban players in the US

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give up competing for their country 

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and who accepted have withdrawn completely from the media

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for the same reason. The only ones who have made use of

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“freedom of expression” are those

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who repeat hate speech against Cuba.

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Definitely, what most bothers Miami

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is that in Cuba the changes that one day demanded of the Island take place.

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If, in the Cuban economy, private initiative grows,

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is this sector supported from the south of Florida? No, it sinks.

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This is what happened with Trump's sanctions,

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at the initiative of the Miami mafia on trips and cruises to the Island,

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which forced the closure of dozens of family tourism businesses.

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In 2018, Cuba reached an agreement with the US Major League Baseball,

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whereby Cuban players would play in the North

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without problems. Isn't that what they demanded in Miami? Well no. 

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The mafia forced Trump to prohibit that agreement,

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because it allocated a small percentage to the grassroots sport on the Island.

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Facts remain exactly the same today:

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to access the Major Leagues, Cubans must break with their federation, reside outside of Cuba,

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not pay taxes on the island and declare their non-communist affiliation.

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Everything of these happened in the country where “freedom is a fundamental right”.

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Therefore, it is not strange that the new change

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of integrating professional baseball players

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residing in other countries adopted by the Cuban Baseball Federation is also boycotted in Miami.

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By the way, the CNN channel in Spanish was one of

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the most recalcitrant media in the politicized harassment of the Cuba team.

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This is how he tried to make people understand what no one in their right mind

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can understand: that a Cuban baseball fan, residing in Havana


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or on the Moon, is against his country's team. Listen:

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"For those people who do not understand, who perhaps see us in Argentina,

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Mexico or somewhere in the Caribbean, who do not understand the political context,

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how could you, in a very simple way, being Cuban, explain it?".

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“Well, it's very simple, during all the years that there

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has been a dictatorship in Cuba, the Cuban government is the one that has been


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in charge of making these baseball teams. (…) It is a team that does not represent us,


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because it is a team that has been organized


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and prepared by the Cuban Baseball Federation”.

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By the way, in Cuba, the country where -we are told- there is censorship,

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the entire match was broadcast, including anti-communist posters and choruses.

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Some say that Miami is a mafia dictatorship.

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Others, that it is a psychiatric hospital for fascists.

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Translated & Subtituleb by Laura V. Mor.