Cuba Denounces US Annulment of Agreement with MLB

The Cuban Baseball Federation (FCB) on Monday denounced US President Donald Trump’s decision to annul the agreement with the Major Leagues of Baseball (MLB), which was aimed at eradicating human trafficking and normalizing the contracts of Cuban baseball players in the Major Leagues.

As we have denounced at the appropriate time, Marco Rubio, along with National Security Advisor John Bolton, showed his intention to reverse the abovementioned document, the FCB explained in an official communiqué.

Cuban Baseball Federation and MLB Reach Historic Agreement

The pressures exerted by those characters have succeeded for the time being, although the agreement, backed up by the majority of Cuban and US societies and identified as a formula to eradicate harmful practices such as human trafficking and its incalculable consequences, is destined to overcome the archaic rhetoric used by its detractors, the press release added.

On Monday afternoon, through a report on The Washington Post, it was learned that Trump had decided to put an end to the agreement, signed on December 19, after several years of negotiations.

The FCB denounced the use with political ends and untenable arguments that succeeded in undoing the agreement, which was welcomed at the time with enthusiasm by athletes, experts and fans, who know that it would open the doors to a safe and orderly insertion into the MLB, the communiqué said.

It remarked that ‘this decision by the government of the United States responds to its permanent purpose of profiting against the nobility of the agreement, by imposing political interests, without caring about the Cuban family’s welfare and calm.’

Annulling the agreement ignores the scenes of pain of the victims of traffickers, who took risks after being stimulated by those who would now be marginalized from any negotiation with the MLB, the FCB warns.

Once again, history shows who are truly responsible for preventing our athletes from playing in that circuit, without the need to renounce their nationality or to risk their lives.

Despite the annulment, ‘the FCB ratifies its commitment to the agreement, which it considers an indispensable instrument to preserve the integrity of its athletes in light of the humiliating and discriminatory treatment of which they have been victims.’

At the same time, the MLB noted that the objective of the deal with the FCB is to eradicate the traffic of Cuban baseball players.

That statement, the only one made so far, was released by the MLB in a communiqué to several media organizations after it was made public that the Trump Government had cancelled the agreement.