Although the Lower House voted in favor, the decision will be made by the Senate.
14ymedio, Havana, 13 April 2025 — Blind Cuban swimmer Yunerki Ortega has taken a step to represent Chile in international events. Last Tuesday, the Lower House of that country approved with 129 votes in favor, one against and one abstention, the bill granting citizenship by grace to the athlete who escaped from a Cuban delegation during the 2023 Parapan American Games in Chile. The final decision will be determined by the Senate.
The announcement comes in the same week that Yunerki Ortega has been declared South American paratriathlon champion. “It’s a way of showing my gratitude for all the solidarity and support to fulfill my dreams,” he said. “I can’t swim for Chile because I did it for Cuba, but I can try in other disciplines and thus repay the tremendous support that I have received,” he added, before he obtained Chilean citizenship.
Citizenship by grace is granted to those who are regarded by the authorities and the government as notable persons contributing to the public and common welfare of society. Ortega was the last of the Cuban athletes who fled to Chile, after a group of 10 athletes from the Island sought to disassociate themselves from the regime.
The swimmer won a silver medal for the Cuban team at the Parapan American Games in Rio 2007 and in Toronto 2015, achieving a national record. He also won bronze medals at the events held in Guadalajara 2011 and Lima 2019. He participated in the Paralympics of London 2012 and Rio 2016, where he ranked among the top ten.
Ortega claims that in Cuba he was never comfortable with the treatment he received from the authorities. “I felt like the gladiators in Roman times. They took me out to fight, but everything was for them. I was a slave,” he told Vergara 240, the digital media platform of the Diego Portales University School of Journalism, before facing the vote in the Lower House. “Many times I had to train with only one boiled egg and white rice to eat, a very bad diet. I was on the team for 15 years and had nothing. Athletes from other countries with poorer results than mine had things, businesses, everything.”
Given the terrible conditions, he requested his discharge and went several months without participating in sports in his native Ranchuelo, in Villa Clara, until he received a call asking him to participate in the event in Chile. Ortega said his family convinced him to attend and use the event as a springboard to leave the Island.
According to Chilean television T13, Ortega left the Pan American Village on November 18. “Passersby helped him take a taxi to a gas station near the National Stadium,” they reported.
Later, Yunerki Ortega explained to Vergara 240 that he had three escape plans. However, none of them succeeded because the Cubans reinforced surveillance after information leaked that at least 10 athletes were planning to flee. He didn’t give up the idea and shared it with a Mexican competitor who helped him.
On the day of the escape, the Mexican hid him in his room until 5:00 a.m., when there was no guard on the first floor
On the day of the escape, the Mexican hid him in his room until 5:00 a.m., when there was no guard on the first floor. They left the village and went to Avenida Pedro Aguirre Cerda, where they climbed into the taxi that took them to the National Stadium, the only reference point they knew in Santiago. They arrived and walked to a gas station. There they waited for more than 15 minutes for a taxi to pass. Ortega said goodbye and left.
The swimmer went to a compatriot’s house and contacted an exiled Cuban lawyer, Mijail Bonito, who helped him start his process of refuge.
Through Facebook, he contacted people related to the sport, but that search took two months. He passed from swimming to the triathlon. The 27th International Triathlon Cup Viña del Mar and Continental Cup were held last March 30 and 31, in which Ortega participated with the Venezuelan Miguel Brito as his coach.
Ortega is currently in the municipality of Puente Alto, representing it in competitions, and teaching paranatation classes. His goals are the Continental Cup in Colombia, on August 18, and the World Triathlon, which will take place in Spain next October.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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