In a press conference, the first Vice-President of the National Sports Institute (IINDER), Raul Fornes, explained that Cuba continues to face difficulties for technological assurances.

Fornes took the opportunity to recall what happened with the agreement between the Cuban Baseball Federation and the Major League Baseball, canceled by the Donald Trump administration shortly after taking office.

That breaking-off causes athletes to abandon their sports teams in competitions on a daily basis, or to leave Cuba illegally, or even to have to ask to leave the sports system in order to gain access to the MLB, he explained.

Today, we continue to face many obstacles, not only in the sports field, but also in the academic, scientific, medical and teaching fields, he stressed.

For over 60 years, the United States has maintained an economic, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba, which has an extraterritorial scope, since, beyond the two nations directly involved, involves the rest of the countries around the globe.

Fornes emphasized that ‘we cannot access the U.S. market and a group of technologies of compulsory use are manufactured in the United States or -in case they are manufactured in other countries- have components or parts of U.S. companies’ and the blockade prevents their acquisition.

He also recalled that Cuba ‘has been banned from using USD’, that´s why on many occasions it is not possible to access the payment of money earned in international sporting events by any means.

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