Havana, July 4 (ACN) Eugenio MartinezThe Director-General of Latin America and the Caribbean at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs considered the US decision not to grant visas to the Cuban football team to participate in the preliminary round of the 2021 CONCACAF Gold Cup (Prelims), which was scheduled to be played on Saturday in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
With the title Cuba discriminatory, the official published a post on his account on the social network Facebook, in which he denounces the political background of these decisions of the North American government’s foreign policy towards the Antilles, and specifies that they are also harmful. Regional sports.
The rigors of political and bureaucratic decisions and the cowardice of the US government are once again causing pain to young athletes and their supporters of all ages. The diplomat considered that for the sole reason of being from Cuba, the United States denied its soccer team to prove its strength and talent against a rival team.
Time and time again, “political ill will and Cuban contempt for variables end up thwarting months of training and causing inconvenience to many Cubans who had hoped to see their team compete on equal footing.
Martinez alluded to the explanation given by the North American, Central American and Caribbean Football Confederation (CONCACAF) for not achieving the Copa-French Guiana game “due to problems on his flight related to Covid-19 and his visas., and testing of the Covid-19 system is required”.
Read also: Cuban Foreign Minister condemns the postponement of visas for the football team
“Given the current state of public health and the ongoing need to comply with protocols, the health and safety of the participating teams cannot be compromised,” this sporting entity said.
The diplomat emphasized that CONCACAF was “misrepresenting what happened”.
What use are putative health protocols to explain the reasons Cuba was denied access to Florida? Martinez noted that it was the absence of visas, not the presence of a virus, that Cuba did not present itself today to the planned party, then explained that the Cuban team was not authorized to request visas at the US Embassy. ; Forced to apply for a visa to Nicaragua, after being refused in Guatemala where Cubans are concentrated.
The CONCACAF statement is dated July 2, yesterday, and its wording refers to today (July 3). The complaint states that they still have young Cubans waiting to travel to the United States today, and the statement gives the idea that they decided yesterday to eliminate Cuba.
Martinez argued that when CONCACAF says “travel and visa challenges” it should have said “US visa policy discriminatory against Cuban athletes”.
It is an insult to write that “the health and safety of the teams cannot be compromised”, in a statement regarding Cuba’s absence.
Is CONCACAF alluding to the fact that the Cuban national team poses a “health and safety risk”? The official wonders, to later explain that the US decision is detrimental to this football federation, as well as to regional sport.
You cannot treat an athlete this way. He stressed that you cannot try to humiliate a country by bureaucrats who decide to prevent young people from playing with the ball on a soccer field.
The State Department and the U.S. Embassy in Havana learned of this visa application, and Cuba alerted them to the danger of delays in authorization.
The diplomat concludes that the United States, which receives and grants visas to murderers and thieves, does not have the courage to allow some boys into their country to play sports.
This Saturday, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Barilla He denounced this discriminatory act and included it in the siege policy applied by the northern force against the people of the Antilles.
The US government cannot justify the visa delay for the Cuban football team, which was preparing to participate in the Gold Cup and is processing its application in advance in a third country.
The embargo harms the Cuban people Tweet embed And thwarts sports dreams. https://t.co/3ecxyD9It1
– Bruno Rodriguez P (@BrunoRguezP) July 3, 2021
The minister stated on Twitter that “the US government cannot justify the postponement of the visa for the Cuban football team,” because it “processed its application in advance in a third country.”
“The embargo is hurting the Cuban people and frustrating their sporting dreams,” he said.
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