REFLECTIONS BY THE COMMANDER IN CHIEF

POLITICS AND SPORTS

I am writing this quickly and a little late. I should do this because of the strong emphasis I have placed in the analysis of this matter.

Besides, the news is not disheartening. The wire services announced that the two boxers who had defected in Rio de Janeiro had been found and arrested by the authorities on a beach close to that city. Remember that they had been given up for missing. They were there without any documents.

They were not sent to prison. They remained in the same hotel where they were staying, under the surveillance of the Federal Police. The boxers told the police that they had made a mistake and regretted it. They refused to see a German citizen who very promptly took interest in them, following instructions from a mafia company. We learned about this later.

The authorities asked us for their documents, and the Cuban consular representatives, following our Ambassador’s instructions, proceeded up to complete all relevant arrangements.

The news stating that the boxers were in Turkey while immigration matters were being looked after had obviously been released by the mafia as a smoke screen. There was even a German Member of Parliament who attempted to hit a home-run with a fake ball. The company that had invested more than two million dollars in this grotesque business was talking about the "human rights" of the athletes' families. What will the United Nations say about this unfair competition?

This is where sports and politics get together in the search for concrete and principled solutions, over and above fondness and bitterness.

Those citizens will not be submitted to any sort of arrest, much less the kinds of methods being used by the United States Government in Abu Ghraib and Guantánamo, which we have never used in this country. They will be temporarily transferred to a guest house and allowed family visits. The press will also be able to contact them if they so wish.

They will be offered decent jobs for the benefit of sports, given their knowledge and experience.

The Brazilian authorities should not be worried in the face of the inevitable campaigns being launched by our adversaries. Cuba’s behaviour will rise to the occasion. I, for one, shall have a good sleep.

Fidel Castro Ruz

August 4, 2007

10:56 p.m.