I can already imagine the expressions of any citizen of this planet when they know that seven players from the Cuban team, who participated in the third edition of the U-23 Baseball World Cup, left their team with the dream of playing in the Major Leagues (MLB) from the United States.

In addition, my imagination could really fall short, because in the vast majority of the media where the news is read or heard, they accompany the information with qualifications such as "fleeing from the dictatorship" or "Cuban baseball players in search of freedom."

What this press "so full of freedom" does not explain is that Cuban athletes are the only ones in the world who, to play in the MLB, have to leave behind the country that saw them born and helped in their sports training. Moreover, the agreement that had been reached in December 2018 was broken during the administration of Donald Trump.

That decision discarded an agreement that can be described as a historic one, since it allowed Cuban players to sign contracts with any of the 30 teams in that league and not have to leave Cuba by illegal means. Those who signed could return to the country as soon as they understood.

Among other details, the essence of the agreement was to stop human trafficking, encourage cooperation and raise the level of baseball.

Precisely, José Dariel Abreu, one of the best Cuban players of all time, who had to overcome many difficulties to insert himself in professional baseball, when he heard the news, he allowed himself to comment:

“Words cannot fully express my sincere joy and excitement to learn that Commissioner Rob Manfred and Tony Clark have reached an agreement with the Cuban Baseball Federation. Knowing that the next generation of Cuban baseball players will not endure the unimaginable fate of previous Cuban players is the realization of an impossible dream for all of us.

“Dealing with the exploitation of smugglers and unscrupulous agencies will finally come to an end for the Cuban baseball player. To this date, I am still harassed. The next generation of Cuban baseball players will be able to sign a Major League Baseball contract, while they will be able to keep their earnings like any other international player in Cuba.  They will be able to return to Cuba, they will be able to share with their families, and they will be able to practice the sport they love against the best players in the world without fear or terror."

Nevertheless, Trump did not want that. Once again, young players who want to prove themselves in the Major Leagues will have to resort to criminal gangs that smuggle them from Cuba to third countries to sign as free agents or, as we are dealing with now, take advantage of an event abroad. We are the only "enemy" to which the United States applies such measures.

However, few is known about these events for most readers, listeners or viewers when they learn of the abandonment of Cuban players in Mexico. If such a measure were applied to all the teams involved in the game, perhaps the U-23 World Cup would not end.

Dominicans, Panamanians, Colombians or Venezuelans, for example, do not have to turn their back on their country. Several of them even have a contract with MLB organizations right now.

That is why it irritates, or in other words, it annoys, that the hypercritical individuals of national sports stop themselves with voracious passion on the deficiencies of our baseball and do not have that thing - put it in other terms - to denounce the atrocities of the USA government towards everyone's Cuba.