Castro says returned star boxers won't be arrested

By Staff
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Google Oneindia News

HAVANA, Aug 5 (Reuters) Ailing Cuban President Fidel Castro promised today that two star boxers who were deported back to Cuba by Brazil after abandoning their team during the Pan-American Games would not be arrested.

Guillermo Rigondeaux, two-time bantamweight Olympic champion, and welterweight world champion Erislandy Lara were arrested on Thursday in a resort town near Rio de Janeiro for not having travel documents.

They were deported back to Cuba where they arrived today morning, according to state-run media.

''They will be offered good jobs in sports in line with their knowledge and experience,'' Castro said in the latest of his writings to appear in the state-run media.

''These citizens will not be arrested or detained,'' Castro said, charging stories the boxers were doomed were enemy propaganda.

After leaving their team, they had apparently wanted to defect to Europe but made no request for asylum in Brazil. Upon their arrest they claimed they had been duped, drugged, and kidnapped by individuals working for the German boxing promoter Arena and wanted to return to Cuba.

Arena representative Ahmet Oner told the Brazilian press the company had not forced the boxers to defect and that they had signed contracts and then changed their minds out of fear for the safety of their families in communist Cuba.

Castro deplored the defections last month as a ''betrayal for money'' and said the boxers ''were simply knocked out with a blow to the jaw, paid for with North American dollars.'' But today Castro was far more forgiving, stating they would be put up at a guest house to reunite with their families upon arrival and allowed to speak with the press, though he made no mention of their ever fighting again.

The 80-year-old Castro, who has not appeared in public since undergoing intestinal surgery a year ago, has taken to writing to reassert his influence in Cuba and does not miss an opportunity to blast his ideological foe the United States.

For years, top Cuban baseball players -- such as Jose Contreras and Orlando ''El Duque'' Hernandez -- have defected to the United States, drawn by million-dollar deals in the major leagues.

At the 1999 Pan-American Games in Winnipeg, 13 Cubans defected, while last December Cuban boxers Yan Barthelemy, Yuriolkis Gamboa and Odlanier Solis deserted while training in Venezuela. All three are now pursuing professional careers in Germany.

Reuters PDS VP0035

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