The Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CBPC) confirmed that Cuba will not participate in the 2020 Caribbean Series in San Juan, due to problems with their visas to travel to Puerto Rico, so Colombia will replace the Cuban team.
The commissioner of the CBPC, the Dominican Juan Francisco Puello, said that although the US immigration authorities provided all the facilities, through the consulate general in the Dominican Republic, to allow the processing of visas for the Cuban delegation, obtaining them became difficult.
“Given that the timing of their tournament ends and the logistics of transfers, it was unlikely to secure the full visa before starting the event in Puerto Rico,” explained Puello.
Despite the bad news, Puello said he was “very grateful” for all the effort made by the United States consulate general in the Dominican Republic to offer the best conditions to obtain a visa for the Cuban delegation.
The 2020 Caribbean Series will be held from February 1 to 7 at the Hiram Bithorn Stadium in San Juan.
“We have the firm intention as Confederation that the doors are open so that the representative of the Cuban national series maintains its participation as a guest country in the edition of the Caribbean Series 2021, scheduled to take place in the city of Mazatlán, in Mexico”, Puello stated.
Before the departure of Cuba, the CBPC added Colombia to compete in the tournament.
The competition will now feature the champion teams from the baseball leagues of Colombia, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
Panama is the defending champion of the tournament.
According to Puello, the event has the necessary strength to face any inconvenience that may arise, and it has even been proven that it comes out stronger with each challenge, which is why he predicted great success for the 2020 San Juan Caribbean Series .
For his part, Anaymir Muñoz, representative of MB Sports -the event’s production company- regretted the departure of the Cuban team to compete in the 2020 Caribbean Series.
However, he said that “it fills us with joy and satisfaction that Colombia joins the event. We know that the event will be one of quality and competitiveness and that all teams will do their best to win the title of winner.
(c) EFE Agency