The Regime Punishes the Brother of Cuban Fighter Cristian Solenzal

The brothers Cristian and Damián Solenzal, two outstanding athletes of Cuban wrestling. (Facebook)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 20 June 2022 — The family of Cuban fighter Cristian Solenzal, who defected in Acapulco, Mexico last May, is suffering reprisals. While his arrival in Lexington, Kentucky (USA) was confirmed this Monday, SwingCompleto revealed that the athlete’s brother, Damián “will be limited in traveling with the Cuba team to international events.”

The decision, the publication says, was made “arbitrarily.” The sanction was finalized after Cristian, who was one of the strong candidates to get his ticket to the Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile 2023, escaped before his commitment against the Peruvian Sixto Miguel Auccapina during the Pan American Wrestling Championship that took place in Mexico.

Damián is one of the most outstanding athletes from Sancti Spíritus. In 2019 he won the Junior Pan American Championship, in Guatemala. In that same year he won the silver medal at the Pan American Championship held in Argentina.

Cuban sports are plagued with similar cases, SwingCompleto published and noted that the authorities erase “from one day to the next the laurels for which they were once celebrated,” referring to athletes who have undergone the same punishment.

Damián’s case occurs in a week agitated by leaks. This Saturday, details were offered about the capture of the players Alfredo Fadraga and Yosvani Ávalos, who had left the group of the Under-23 team that participated in the Pan American Championship in the Mexican state of Aguascalientes.

The Mexican police arrested the boys who were returned to the island before the tournament ended as if they were criminals. The disciplinary measure has not yet been announced.

This Sunday the escape of the Olympic boxing champion Andy Cruz was confirmed. The boxer is in the Dominican Republic, which shook the Cuban government.

Since Cristian’s escape, sources confirmed to 14ymedio that the man from Sancti Spiritus had in mind to continue his career in the United States. Solenzal is part of the group of five Cubans who left the wrestling team in Mexico. The others were the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic champion and two-time world champion Ismael Borrero, Leonardo Herrera, Amanda Hernández and Yolanda Cordero.

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