HAVANA, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Cuba's Baseball Federation (FCB) on Monday night rejected the U.S. government's decision to cancel an agreement signed last year with Major League Baseball (MLB) which would have allowed local athletes to compete in that nation.
"Our organization strongly rejects this decision and denounces the use of unsustainable arguments with political motives that managed to reverse the agreement," said the FCB in a short statement published on their webpage.
Donald Trump's administration on Monday scrapped the deal between MLB and the FCB signed last December that would have allowed Cuban players to sign with U.S. teams without needing to defect.
The White House argued the FCB is part of the Cuban government and not an NGO as originally stipulated in the pact, which caused the deal to be nullified as trade with Cuba is banned due to Washington's six-decade old embargo on the island.
Since the agreement was signed, Trump's National Security Advisor John Bolton and Republican Senator Marco Rubio called for its end amid growing hostility from Washington towards Havana.
"The pressures applied by these political figures led to the cancellation momentarily of an agreement that was backed by the majority of the U.S. society and identified as a formula to eliminate harmful practices such as human trafficking," added the statement from the FCB.
According to the Cuban NGO, the pact with MLB was received with joy by athletes, coaches and their families which would have opened the door to players' competing in the world's top baseball professional league.
In the past, many Cuban players seeking contracts in the U.S. made dangerous journeys via human traffickers to defect, while others abandoned the Cuban national team while playing abroad.
"Cancelling the accord ignores the pain by those who were victims of traffickers and assumed risks stimulated by those who now have been left out of any negotiation with MLB," added the text.
The original agreement was helped by an Obama-era regulatory change that allowed U.S. employers to hire Cuban nationals despite the trade embargo.
The Trump administration said on Monday this is no longer valid in the case of the MLB.
Havana has reiterated its baseball federation is not part of the state apparatus but rather of the Cuban Olympic Committee, which in turn reports to the International Olympic Committee, not the Cuban government.
The initial deal, which was expected to run through October 2021, allowed Cuban players to sign with clubs under rules similar to those for players from Japan and South Korea.
