Brazil will deport Cuban boxers who defected.
Rio de Janeiro - Two Cuban boxers arrested in Brazil after defecting during last month's Pan American Games will be deported back to Cuba, police said Friday. Cuban boxers Erislandy Lara, 24, and Guillermo Rigondeaux, 25, were arrested Thursday after disappearing during the games on July 21 and reportedly signing contracts with a German promoter.
"They do not have documents. That alone would be enough for them to be deported," federal police commissioner Felicio Laterca said.
He added that the Brazilian authorities have already asked the Cuban government to send plane tickets for the two sportsmen and also their passports, which remained in the hands of the Cuban delegation at the Pan American Games when they defected.
Should Cuba not pay for their return, the Brazilian federal government will assume the cost of their deportation, Laterca said.
The two boxers told police they are "repentant" and want to "return home," authorities said Friday.
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you can argue Brazil is simply following its laws, like all those Mexican hating anti immigration Americans say
it deports and fines gringos who overstay their visas, etc.
frankly, the cubans should have had a better understanding of what they were getting into, or frankly, where they were defecting.
were they the first cubans to defect in Brazil and was Brazil's govt following precedent? or breaking it?
Yup, they are assholes. But as Bogey says, it's the same thing Americans say about the illegal aliens.
if they had a German agent willing to help them?
No,
Just watch, somehow hey will be still fghting in USA.
wotan Wrote:if they had a German agent willing to help them?
because bureacracies and governments don't work that way.
Is there no German embassy in Brazil? They should have gone to the Canadian one.
Because they're Cubans they should be allowed to plop their beings in any country they want. Cuba may suck for Cubans but I'd rather be living there then 95% of the countries in Africa or half of the "...stan" countries.
pblee Wrote:Because they're Cubans they should be allowed to plop their beings in any country they want. Cuba may suck for Cubans but I'd rather be living there then 95% of the countries in Africa or half of the "...stan" countries.
uhh... what?
are you being sarcastic?
that espn story.;. doesn't quite add up.
we are missing something. Why did they change their minds? why did they refuse the lawyers the German agent sent?
did the CDR show up at the homes of their families? or what?
Bogey Wrote:pblee Wrote:Because they're Cubans they should be allowed to plop their beings in any country they want. Cuba may suck for Cubans but I'd rather be living there then 95% of the countries in Africa or half of the "...stan" countries.
uhh... what?
are you being sarcastic?
that espn story.;. doesn't quite add up.
we are missing something. Why did they change their minds? why did they refuse the lawyers the German agent sent?
did the CDR show up at the homes of their families? or what?
Yes, they got the word that their families would be punished.
Because of that they are being forced to go back...they will have a hell of a time to find work..their careers are over.
Lets see how the world community reacts..and how the world community will judge Lula for this decision.
History is judging the episode of the SS St Luis.
Lillian Wrote:Bogey Wrote:pblee Wrote:Because they're Cubans they should be allowed to plop their beings in any country they want. Cuba may suck for Cubans but I'd rather be living there then 95% of the countries in Africa or half of the "...stan" countries.
uhh... what?
are you being sarcastic?
that espn story.;. doesn't quite add up.
we are missing something. Why did they change their minds? why did they refuse the lawyers the German agent sent?
did the CDR show up at the homes of their families? or what?
Yes, they got the word that their families would be punished.
Because of that they are being forced to go back...they will have a hell of a time to find work..their careers are over.
Lets see how the world community reacts..and how the world community will judge Lula for this decision.
History is judging the episode of the SS St Luis.
that still doesn't make complete sense Tia.
First of all, the boxers can't be that dumb not to know that pressure would be brought to bear on their families. That is a part of the planning process for any prominent public figure that wants to defect.
So if this indeed has happened, this cannot be a SURPRISE.
as to world community - they won't react. The Cuban govt will of course deny that any at all pressure is being brought to bear and the boxers are saying they merely want to go home.
and Lula of course won't be judged. The US is the only country that has the policy vis a vis Cuban defectors and rafters. etc that it does.
What I want to know is what is, if any exists the PRECEDENT for any Cubans that defected/wanted to defect in Brazil, or is this the first time?
Here is a better, more detailed report....
...Rio de Janeiro, Aug 3 (EFE).- Police in the Brazilian state of Rio de Janeiro have detained two Cuban boxers who defected during the recently concluded Pan American Games, authorities said, although they did not give a reason for the arrests.
"The 25th battalion of the Military Police confirmed that the two Cuban boxers (Erislandy Lara and Guillermo Rigondeaux) were arrested and taken to the Federal Police in Niteroi," a city near Rio de Janeiro, a Federal Police spokeswoman told Efe on Thursday.
Lara, 2005 amateur world champion in the welterweight division; and Rigondeaux, an Olympic and world champion at bantamweight, were arrested on the Praia Seca beach in the small city of Araruama, some 108 kilometers (67 miles) from Rio, the Military Police said.
It remained unclear what charges the two Cubans are facing. "They had been given up for missing since the Pan American Games," the spokeswoman said.
Other spokesmen for the Federal Police consulted by Efe said that the fact the athletes have been located does not necessarily mean they must be kept in custody.
"As far as we know they have not committed any crime in Brazil nor are they in the country illegally; besides they have a visa for 90 days. They can't be imprisoned" simply for having fled the Pan American Village, a police spokesman said.
Rigondeaux and Lara, the two biggest stars of the Cuban boxing team and top favorites to win gold in their respective categories, had been missing since July 22 when they did not show up for weigh-in sessions prior to their bouts.
A possible cause of the detentions is that they did not have travel papers because the Cuban delegation retained their passports during the Pan Am Games, which was held from July 13-29 in Rio.
It is also possible that the documents were cancelled by the Cuban government and that this action was communicated to Brazil's Foreign Ministry, but all of this is just speculation for now, another police spokesman told Efe.
News of the boxers' disappearance attracted worldwide attention and the defections were confirmed and denounced by convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who, in one of the articles he has written while recovering from a serious gastrointestinal ailment, accused the athletes of "treason."
Castro also wrote that "in Germany there is a mafia dedicated to selecting, buying and promoting Cuban boxers" that uses "refined psychological methods and many millions of dollars."
Indeed, a German boxing promoter told a Brazilian newspaper that he spent more than $500,000 to arrange the defections of the two boxers from the Cuban delegation to the Pan Am Games.
The arrests of the boxers caught many by surprise because some press reports had indicted that Lara and Rigondeaux had managed to leave Brazil overland on their way to Europe.
To date, neither of the boxers have requested political asylum in Brazil. EFE
Ok,
Here is the latest from German press.
Apparently our poor Cubans are already back in Cuba.
.....Wie die brasilianische Bundespolizei in Rio de Janeiro mitteilte, wurden Guillermo Rigondeaux (25) und Erislandy Lara (24) «bereits Samstagnacht deportiert». Die beiden seien in Rio um 21.00 Uhr Ortszeit (5. August, 0200 MESZ) in einer Maschine Richtung Kuba abgeflogen.....
For those who don't speak German...
Brazilian police informed that Rigondeaux and Lara were deported on Saturday night and were on the plane to Cuba at 21.00 (9PM) local time.
They also shed some light on how they defected. It is funny, only Cubans can come up with something like this.....
.....Erst am 4. August hatte es eine neue Wende in der «Seifenoper» um die Boxer gegeben. Rigondeaux und Lara versicherten im Polizeiverhör, sie seien nicht «desertiert», sondern von zwei Männern unter Drogen gesetzt und verschleppt worden, damit sie in Europa Profikämpfe bestreiten.
Rigondeaux und Lara hatten nach eigenen Angaben von kubanischen Delegationsführern freien Ausgang bekommen und wollten in Rio ein Videospiel kaufen, als sie von zwei Männern «mit Drogen in einem Getränk» bewusstlos gemacht worden seien......
According to two Cuban boxers, they didn't defect, but they became victims of two men (the boss of Arena Boxing and a Cuban who works for him and who secured last years defectors - Solis and co.- to join Arena Boxing to fight in Germany), who with help of drugs and alcohol basically made them sign the contracts to fight as pros in Europe.
They left the PanAm Games village with full knowledge of the Cuban delegation bosses to buy some video game
, instead ended up being drugged by two men which made them brainless, lol (bewusstlos). Actually this word has a different meaning , but I like it like that - brainless.
Wow, what these guys have to go through to be taken back by Fifo.
yeah, well now there is lots of stuff going on that we don't know about.
lots and lots of unsaid/untold stuff.
ah..,to be a fly on the wall.
So the German spent a half a million dollars, eh? sounds a bit obscene.
dumbfuck for disclosing that - more propaganda fodder for Fidel.
nah... they won't go thru much, they'll be fine. Fifo will now use them for his own propaganda purposes, they'll be held up as examples of the drugging and other things that other defectors have gone thru, etc.
in the end they'll officially be "revolutionary heroes".
Officially, that is