[NYTr] Boxers Who "Defected" Now Pining to Return to Cuba

Sat Aug 4 17:02:30 EDT 2007

["Defecting" Cuban sports figures are really just naive apolitical
Cubans who were lured to leave the nation that educated them and
nurtured their talent (for free), tricked by swindler promoters'
promises of Big Money and Rich Livin' in Yanquilandia.  They grew up
with the typical third world illusion of gold in the streets of the
USA, and the rude awakening upon their arrival in the "Free World" is
very disheartening. The idea that these people are "defectors" is
ludicrous. 

As with many of the doctors who desert their aid missions abroad and
claim they are "defecting," it's greed, not politics, that motivates
these people. Apparently these two jerks will get their wish. Brazil,
where they deserted, plans to deport them.  German-Turkish promoter
Ahmet Oner has publicly claimed he spent half a million yanqui
dollars getting these two to desert. Sure.

Although some of the US news stories claim Fidel Castro called them
"defectors," what he actually said was that they'd both fallen for a
sucker punch. -NY Transfer]

The Miami Herald - Aug 4,2007
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/miami_dade/story/192521.html

Boxers who defected now longing for Cuba

BY JORGE EBRO

Two star Cuban boxers who apparently defected in Brazil but were later
captured were quoted Friday as saying they now ''regret'' their actions
and are ready to go home -- where one trainer says that ``as boxers,
they are dead.''

Guillermo Rigondeaux and Erislandy Lara, who went to Brazil for the
recently completed Pan American Games, were being held by police in a
hotel in Rio de Janeiro. News reports say the Brazilian government
plans to return them to Cuba.

Their failure to turn up for weigh-ins during the Pan American games
last month shook the amateur boxing world because of their star status.
The bantam-weight Rigondeaux, 26, was Olympic champion in 2000 and
2004, and Lara, 24, was a promising welterweight.

An article in the Brazilian daily O Globo said the two boxers claimed
to have been duped by German-Turkish promoter Ahmet Oner and his aides,
who -- the boxers said -- drugged them and removed them from the Pan
American Village.

But just days after the boxers disappeared, Oner stated publicly that
he had signed the pair for five years and was keeping them in a
protected place. Oner, who heads Arena Box Promotions, added that he
had spent about $500,000 to assist in the Cubans' escape.

The defection enraged Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who wrote in a
newspaper column that the two boxers ``very simply . . . were knocked
out by a punch to the chin, paid with American dollars. No countdown
was needed.''

Oner's statements also angered Miami lawyer Tony González, who
participated in an operation that allowed three other Cuban Olympic
champions to defect in December and sign up with the German promoter.

`HOW CAN HE BOAST?'

''He is interested only in publicity. . . . How can he boast about it
in public,'' González asked, ``when the boxers were without papers, in
plain sight, and from what I read, not in the best circumstances?''

Oner's Arena Box Promotions already has the services of Olympic
champions Odlanier Solís, Yan Barthelemy and Yuriorkis Gamboa, who
defected in Venezuela while training in December for the Pan American
Games.

Cuban boxing trainer Roberto Quesada, who coaches Gamboa, said the
Cuban boxing careers of Rigondeaux and Lara are ruined.

''I very much doubt that they'll ever climb in a ring again if they
return to Cuba,'' he said.

''From experience, I know that they will be treated like soldiers who
deserted from the army in the middle of a battle,'' Quesada said.
``They may not realize it, but as boxers they are dead.''

Rigondeaux's wife, Farah Colina, told reporters Friday in Havana that
authorities had taken away the car given to him for his sports
achievements, but she hoped there would be no further reprisals.

''Maybe he made a mistake, but he didn't kill anyone. He didn't set off
any bombs, he's not a terrorist,'' she told the Spanish EFE news agency.

In a statement made public Friday, Oner said, ``We are in contact with
the Brazilian authorities. There may still be a possibility that
Rigondeaux and Lara will come with us. That's what I wish for both
boys, who only want to be free and make money.''

Rigondeaux and Lara were found in a hotel in a resort town close to Rio
de Janeiro. According to Brazilian media reports, they had been
celebrating and had run up a large bill.

The reports added that both fighters expressed remorse to the
authorities at the time of their detention and said they were willing
to return to Cuba, apparently hoping they could resume their sports
careers.

González, who said he had signed a contract with Rigondeaux before the
boxer turned to Oner, said he believes the Cuban government may use the
two boxers for propaganda.

''They could go to prison, or [authorities] could organize in Cuba a
spectacle with the two, as a lesson for younger boxers who want to
become professionals,'' González said.

SOUGHT HELP FROM U.S.

The Miami attorney said he had made some last-minute contacts with U.S.
government figures to ask them to intercede on behalf of the boxers and
prevent their deportation, but his effort apparently came too late.

He said the two boxers ``have been the victims of irresponsible people,
and now they're the only ones who will pay. . . . They are in a third
country, without documents and under police custody, so nothing can be
done.''

''If it weren't so tragic, one might say this was a comedy of errors,''
he added. ``Rigondeaux and Lara had a future ahead of them. Now they
have nothing.''

                             ***

Xinhua via People's Daily Online - Aug 4, 2007
http://english.people.com.cn/90001/90779/6231896.html

Runaway boxers to be deported back to Cuba

Cuba's champion boxers Erislandry Lara and Guillermo Rigondeaux, who
abandoned their delegation during the Pan American Games, will be
deported back to their country, Brazilian Federal Police announced on
Friday.

The athletes were found on Thursday in the municipality of Araruama,
Rio de Janeiro state's northern coast. They were accompanied by two
entrepreneurs, one of whom was also Cuban.

According to the police, they are expected to return to the Caribbean
island as soon as Cuba's government sends back their passports and
there are seats available on a fight to Havana.

Since the two disappeared from the Pan Am Village on July 22, there
have been several hypotheses over what happened to them. According to
rumors, they would have left to Paraguay, which was proved to be false
on Thursday.

Additionally, Germany's sports agency Arena Box Promotions was believed
to have hired the boxers, a version that was later confirmed by the
company's owner, Ahmed Onar.

The possibility generated attacks from the Cuban leader Fidel Castro,
who released a statement saying that a German "mafia" made use of
psychological methods and millions of U.S. dollars to steal boxers from
Cuba.

The German agency's attorney in Brazil, Rafael Vilhena, said that Arena
offered the two athletes "regular contracts between promotion companies
and boxers, like all others around the world."

On Friday, Rigondeaux, 25, and Lara, 24, were taken to a hotel in Rio's
metropolitan region, but their exact location was not revealed in order
to prevent Arena's agents from approaching them, said the police.

Rigondeaux, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in the bantamweight
division, and Lara, a world half-middleweight champion, were some of
Cuba's most promising assets in the Pan Am Games which was held between
July 13-29 in Rio, but they abandoned the boxing team before their
first fights in the competition.

Along with two other desertions, that was regarded as the main reason
for the anticipated departure of 200 delegation members in the evening
before the end of the Games, which was later denied by the Cuban
Olympic Committee.

That was not the first time that Cuba's boxing stars fled the country.
Bantam Yan Barthelemy, flyweight Yuriorkis Gamboa and heavyweight
Odlanier Solis, all of them gold medalists in 2004 Athens Olympics,
abandoned the team in Dec. 2006 when participating in a competition in
Venezuela. They were hired by Arena Box Promotions, which currently
relies on five Cuban boxers on its portfolio.

Source: Xinhua

                                 ***

Reuters via CNN - Aug 3, 2007
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/americas/08/03/cuba.brazil.reut/

 Cuban boxers to be sent home from Brazil

 RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (Reuters)--Two Cuban boxers who deserted their
team during last month's Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro will be
sent home to the Communist-run island, Brazilian police said Friday.

Cuban boxers Guillermo Rigondeaux, right, and Erislandy Lara arrive at
a police station Thursday in Rio de Janeiro.

Guillermo Rigondeaux, two-time bantamweight Olympic champion, and
welterweight world champion Erislandy Lara were briefly detained
Thursday in a resort town in Rio de Janeiro state for not having travel
documents.

After leaving their team, they apparently had wanted to go to Europe
and made no request for asylum in Brazil, but a police source said they
now wanted to go home.

"They expressed their will to return to Cuba," a police source told
Reuters. "They will be deported; we are waiting for their documents and
air tickets from the consulate."

Travel documents of Cuban athletes are usually kept by the leaders of
the country's delegation.

Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has accused the two boxers of
defecting, saying they betrayed Cuba for dollars.

Police chief Felicio Laterca said Friday that the two were in a Rio
hotel and police were watching them to prevent them "being seduced
again" by foreign sports agents. One agent had sought to send them to
Germany on professional contracts.

Despite the desertions that often hit Cuban teams at international
events, Cuba still snatched more gold medals in boxing than any other
country at the Pan American Games with five out of 11.

Rafael Dacosta, a member of the Cuban handball team, left the Rio
athletes' village in the first week of the games and later was seen in
Sao Paulo state trying to arrange a contact with a local handball team.

At the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg, Manitoba, 13 Cubans
defected, while last December Cuban boxers Yan Barthelemy, Yuriolkis
Gamboa and Odlanier Solis deserted while training in Venezuela.

All three are now pursuing professional careers in Germany.