The Associated Press
Published: October 22, 2007
BRASILIA, Brazil: Brazilian legislators said the Cuban government is not
cooperating with their efforts to meet with two Cuban boxers who were
deported after going missing from the Pan American Games in Rio de Janeiro.
Guillermo Rigondeaux, Cuba's top boxer and a two-time Olympic
bantamweight champion, and Erislandy Lara, an amateur welterweight world
champion, vanished July 22 for about two weeks in Brazil, only to be
arrested and deported.
The fighters say they never intended to defect and asked to return to
Cuba, but a German promoter insists both signed five-year contracts and
officials at the German Embassy in Brazil claim the pair sought visas.
Congressman Raul Jungmann, of the lower house's Foreign Affair's
Committee, said Monday that Cuba's ambassador to Brazil warned that "if
we requested an entry visa it would be denied."
Cuban Embassy spokesman Sergio Ramirez declined to comment.
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"We respect Cuba's sovereignty," Jungmann said by telephone. "But all we
want to do is find out exactly what happened ... because it all took
place on Brazilian soil."
The fighters have been dropped from the Cuba national team and the
country's boxing federation, fearing more defection attempts, refuses to
attend the world championships in Chicago.
http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2007/10/22/america/LA-GEN-Brazil-Cuban-Boxers.php
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