August 11, 2025 — Belly of the Beast
Since Donald Trump assumed the presidency, the State Department has prevented dozens of Cuban athletes from competing in tournaments in the United States.
“No U.S. president has ever gone to such lengths to target Cuban athletes,” said Gisleidy Sosa, international relations director of Cuba’s National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER).
In June, for example, all 17 members of Cuba’s national women’s volleyball team were denied U.S. visas for a major tournament in Puerto Rico, according to INDER. Hear from the players themselves in OUR LATEST VIDEO.
Athletes or Terrorists?
The letter the Cuban women’s volleyball team received from the U.S. embassy in Havana said the denial was to “protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security threats.”
They were just the latest athletes to have their dreams punctured by a Cold War-era policy of hostility toward Cuba orchestrated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Other victims include table tennis players, Cuba’s national men’s basketball team, senior track-and-field athletes, and a softball team composed of nine and ten-year-old girls…
Read the FULL ARTICLE on the de facto travel ban written by Dariel Pradas and Reed Lindsay.
