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.c The Associated Press
May 30
MEXICO CITY
(AP) - Cuba denied Saturday that any arrangements had been made with Nicaragua
to grant Nicaraguan visas for three Cuban baseball players and a coach who tried
to flee the island but were forcibly returned.
The four said Friday they have been promised visas by officials at the
Nicaraguan embassy in the Cuban capital. Afterward, coach Orlando Chinea said he
was told the offer applied to all of the approximately 190 Cubans the Bahamas
repatriated in recent weeks.
Cuba's Foreign Ministry said that if Nicaraguan President Arnoldo Aleman is
willing to accept immigrants, he could have all the Cubans he wanted - but not
the repatriated baseball players.
``If Mr. Aleman is so generous, we would be willing to give authorization
for any citizen wishing to emigrate legally to Nicaragua,'' the Foreign Ministry
said in a press statement published by the official news agency Prensa Latina.
``None of the (Cuban) citizens who violated immigration accords by trying to
immigrate illegally through the Bahamas ... will receive authorization to leave
the country,'' the statement continued.
The Bahamas has a treaty with Cuba under which it returns illegal immigrants
to Cuba.
On Thursday, Aleman offered his country as a haven for the repatriated
Cubans. Aleman also said the Miami-based, anti-Castro Cuban-American National
Foundation had agreed to cover the costs of the transfer.
Chinea and catcher Angel Lopez, 25; first baseman Jorge Luis Toca, 23;
second baseman Jorge Diaz, 23; and shortstop Michael Jova, 17, left Cuba by boat
in March, hoping to reach the Bahamas and then be allowed eventually to reach
the United States.
Cuban officials claimed all five had been banned from Cuban baseball because
they planned to leave the island or to help others flee. Officials have
repeatedly called players who defect ``traitors.''
Toca was allowed to go to Japan because he has a Japanese wife. But the rest
spent almost two months in a Bahamian detention facility before being returned
to Cuba on May 18.
Pitcher Orlando Hernandez signed a $6.6 million contract with the New York
Yankees after he defected to the Bahamas in December and was granted asylum by
Costa Rica.
AP-NY-05-30-98 1827EDT
Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. |