Baseball player seeks US asylum

Mario Miguel Chaoui with his grandmother Maria Espina

A Cuban college baseball player, missing since the weekend, has re-emerged in south Florida and announced that he wants to defect to the United States.

Mario Miguel Chaoui, 20, who disappeared shortly after arriving in Minnesota on Saturday, said he would apply for asylum. He wanted to attend college and eventually to play professional baseball in the US.

The player, who left behind his parents and a sister said: "We never planned it, neither here nor in Cuba. It was my own decision,"

Chaoui was flanked by his grandmother and his uncle as he spoke to journalists in the office of sports agent Joe Cubas, who has helped other Cuban baseball players who fled the communist country.

I had to do it......to have liberty

Mario Miguel Chaoui

Arturo Espinosa, Chaoui's uncle, said he drove to Minneapolis on Saturday to persuade his nephew to defect.

Chaoui and his team-mates had just arrived at Minneapolis-St Paul International Airport, reciprocating last winter's visit by the University of St Thomas baseball team.

"When I found out that he was coming to play baseball here in the United States, my feeling was to immediately go see him," his uncle said. "I tried to convince him to stay."

Defecting Cuban baseball players helped by Joe Cubas

Orlando "El Duque" Hernandez

Livan Hernandez Rigoberto Herrera

Jorge Toca

Angel Lopez

Enrique Chinea

Chaoui agreed, jumped in the car and they drove to Chicago to catch a flight to Miami.

"It was very difficult for me, but I had to do it, because I felt a bit tired and it was a decision to have liberty, to reconcile with my family here," said Chaoui.

Chaoui's team, Equipo Caribe, or Team Caribbean, is made up mainly of students from the University of Havana, with some other members from a technical institute in the Cuban capital.

His abrupt departure took team-mates by surprise; some labelled him a traitor.

Cuba Silent

Cuba's communist government, which generally does not comment on defections, has been silent about Chaoui's announcement.

The last time a Cuban team of college players came to the US was in 1987, when a national team played several games in Minneapolis.

Chaoui, who is studying economics, insists that finishing his degree is the priority for now.

"First thing I'd like to learn the language, perfect it, later study and of course, the dream of every Cuban ball player is to play in the major leagues, to play professional baseball, but first comes study," he said.