Politics and sports: Who uses it against whom?, what objectives are they pursuing?, who is the victim and who is the villain?.
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The rebound of the issue comes because the Cuban national team could not face its eliminatory for the Soccer Gold Cup because the United States government once again and as usual interposed work for immigration protocols and finally did not grant visas to the delegation from Cuba to travel to that nation for such qualifying match against French Guiana.

This torture of immigration procedures to the United States is suffered not only by athletes, but also by artists, scientists or people who want to travel to that country for family reasons. The closure of the Embassy in Havana means that all these procedures are carried out from a third country, with only one exception being made with the Baseball team that participated in the pre-Olympic in La Florida, with the necessary delays to disturb the Cuban side.

Now with the soccer team, the door to start the procedures here was closed and then the "adventure" of Nicaragua began, which in the end had a resounding and well-intentioned final objective.

Logic says that the two concepts, sport and politics, have little to do with each other. On the one hand, sport refers to an activity or physical exercise. On the other hand, politics is the art of state government. This is what the dictionary says, to settle for this description would be deeply banal.

One of the most valuable skills in sport is to faithfully represent life. The practice of a sport entails sacrifice, passion and effort, characteristics necessary to achieve any objective. Furthermore, if a word defines sport it is ‘global’, it is impressive how easy it is to unite people and break down barriers.

Politics, meanwhile, encompasses everything, everything fits into the political game. It is almost impossible to think of an institution, a club, or a society and omit its political aspect. Sports and politics pass through intertwined paths. To think otherwise would be to ignore reality, the human being is a political animal and it shows it in all its expressions.

The 1936 Berlin Olympics are an excellent example. Adolf Hitler tried to demonstrate with triumph the superiority of the Aryan race that he defended in his theories. A young black American, Jessie Owens, swept four golds and was the great protagonist of those Games. It was the beginning of sport as subordinate to politics.

If there is a country in the world that has been a victim of the politicization of sport, it is Cuba. Barely six months after the 1959 Revolution triumphed, the United States government was already pulling out its nails and making its intentions very clear.

The sporting exchange between both nations is conditioned by special permits and no Cuban athlete can be legally hired in any club in that nation, unless they break all ties with their federation and obtain residence in a third country.

That measure, coupled with the Cuban Adjustment Law, gave rise to illegal human trafficking, falsification of official documents, fraud and dirty business. Cuba is the only country whose athletes are signed by US entities, without receiving a single dollar, even though they were trained from school age.

In December 2018, Major League Baseball, its players union, and the Cuban Baseball Federation reached an agreement that allowed the island's players to sign contracts with teams in the United States without having to defect, an effort that seeks to eliminate dangerous traffic of individuals who have spent decades of dirty practice.

A few months later in April 2019, the Donald Trump Administration decided to terminate the agreement negotiated by Barack Obama. Today the illegal exodus of Cuban baseball players to the north in search of opportunities to play in the best league in the world continues.

For decades our country has had to suffer the siege of its main stars in different sports. Cuba, which dominates the historical medal table of Latin America in the Olympic Games, has built talent training centers (EIDE) in the 15 provinces and the special municipality of Isla de La Juventud. Likewise, sport became a right of the people, but always under the siege of a hostile policy that blows rough winds from the north.