Four Cuban Pan Am rowers team defect to U.S., coach says

Four Cuban Pan Am rowers team defect to U.S., coach says
Coach Juan Carlos Reyes says Liosmel Ramos, Wilber Turro, Manuel Suarez
and Orlando Sotolongo have left the team and travelled to the United States.
By: Stephen Spencer Davis Staff Reporter, Published on Wed Jul 15 2015

Four Cuban rowers have defected while attending the Pan Am Games,
joining a long list of athletes who have left their country for the
United States.
Coach Juan Carlos Reyes said rowers Liosmel Ramos and Wilber Turro quit
before a regatta on Saturday. Manuel Suarez and Orlando Sotolongo
competed in earlier races before withdrawing. Rowing competition is
being held in St. Catharines, a short drive from the U.S. border.
The news comes as the U.S. government is advocating a renewed
relationship between the two countries. On July 1, President Barack
Obama announced that the U.S. and Cuba would reestablish diplomatic
relations and reopen their respective embassies.
"This is a historic step forward in our efforts to normalize relations
with the Cuban government and people and begin a new chapter with our
neighbours in the Americas," Obama said.
Cuban migrants who reach U.S. soil can typically apply for permanent
residency one year and one day after reaching the country.
According to a spokesperson for U.S. Customs and Border Protection,
28,300 Cuban migrants arrived in the United States in 2014. The U.S.
Coast Guard puts the "migrant flow" via sea from Cuba at 3,104 this
year. Others arrive via third countries including Canada, according to
the Associated Press.
Despite the president's pronouncements, it's clear to experts why Cubans
will continue to defect.
José Azel, a senior scholar at the Institute for Cuban and
Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, said the country's
economy pushes citizens to defect, and argued that American policies
would have little impact on the realities Cubans face.
"The Cuban economy is a disaster due to the policies of the Cuban
government. It has nothing to do with economic sanctions," Azel said.
"Cuba is not going to change just because a handful of Americans go to
Varadero and drink mojitos (on) the beach."
Arch Ritter, an economics professor at Carleton University, said Cubans
would defect "for simple monetary reasons."
"Their prospects for earning an exceptional income ... in the United
States is pretty high," Ritter said. "The incomes they earn in Cuba are
very low."
Economic opportunities in the United States could be particularly
appealing for athletes.
In 2012, three Cuban soccer players disappeared before their team faced
Canada in a World Cup qualifying match. Major league baseball players
who have defected from Cuba include Danys Báez, who \defected from the
Cuban national team at the 1999 Pan American Games in Winnipeg. That
year, eight members of the Cuban delegation defected.
Over 20 baseball players left Cuba to pursue major league careers in 2009.
But even without the promise of a multi-million-dollar contract, the
realities of life in Cuba are such that some will continue to defect,
according to Azel, who sees Cuba as "a totalitarian regime with
absolutely no freedoms of any kind" and "no expectation of being able to
get ahead."
Maria Cristina Garcia, a professor at Cornell University, said it's
unlikely Cuba will see any radical changes right away, but that will
will happen over time.
"It's hard to imagine that Cuba will not change after a million-plus
Americans start visiting the island each year. Whether that change will
be good for the Cuban people is anyone's guess," Garcia wrote in an
email. "Cuba's challenge — like our own — is to create programs that
allow all to share in the prosperity."
With files from the Canadian Press and Star archives

Source: Four Cuban Pan Am rowers team defect to U.S., coach says |
Toronto Star -
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/panamgames/2015/07/15/four-members-of-cuban-pan-am-rowing-team-have-defected-says-coach.html