A local Communist Party official presented boxer Ronny Álvarez this week with cooking oil, two packs of hot dogs, and a bunch of plantains upon his return from the Junior Pan-American Games qualifiers, where he earned a gold medal, Latin American outlets noted Wednesday.
Raúl Javier Morales Pérez, the director of the government’s Sports Collective in Chambas, eastern Ciego de Ávila, posted bizarre photos of Álvarez holding up his medal in front of a table of various basic foodstuffs on Facebook last week, though the images began going viral on Cuban social media on Tuesday. The Communist Party has significantly reduced access to the internet on the island for regular citizens since the July 11 anti-communist protests, but many Cubans have managed to find their way back online using VPNs and other workarounds. Communist Party officials typically have full access to the internet.
The Youth Pan-American Games qualifiers were held in Guadalajara, Mexico, this year. Morales’ post explained that the meager food rations offered Álvarez were a reward for his gold medal at the event.
The photo opportunity, Morales’ post claimed, was “to give the deserved welcome to boxing athlete Ronny Alvarez, gold medalist … congrats, champ.”
The photos show Álvarez, wearing a sanitary mask, in front of a small table showing what the government presumably rewarded him with for his athletic success. On the table are visible two packs of hot dogs, a small pile of yuca (a tuber common in Cuban cuisine), two bottles of cooking oil, a bunch of plantains, and what appears to be an assortment of soaps and laundry detergent. At the center of the table, Álvarez has a bag of unclear contents, possibly chicken.
The photos also show Álvarez feted with a cake, a luxury for most Cubans.
Several of the items in the photo are in desperately short supply in Cuba due to Communist Party mismanagement and corruption. Items like chicken and cooking oil have become increasingly difficult to obtain, forcing Cubans to wait on lines for hours holding their ration cards. Cubans have expressed significant concern that ration lines force them to remain in close quarters with strangers for long periods of time, potentially exposing them to Chinese coronavirus. Last month, the government failed to attract enough people to a mandatory “revolutionary” propaganda event to outdo the turnout at the neighboring food line.
Lines for more expensive items, like household appliances, can require keeping one’s position for as long as 15 days.
The Castro regime regularly blames the United States for food shortages, claiming the alleged “embargo” prevents Havana from supplying the national demand. The embargo does not prevent humanitarian aid shipments, however, and the Castro regime regularly purchases goods like chicken from the United States, reselling at seven times America’s sale price.
Álvarez’s gifts have rekindled concerns about athlete abuse in Cuba. The Castro regime regularly uses athletes for propaganda purposes and heavily publicizes the “rewards” available to them to entice new talent to pursue competition. As the independent outlet ADN Cuba noted this week, the regime advertised a giveaway of refrigerators, mattresses, and stoves to the member of the Matanzas baseball team for winning the country’s National Series in 2020. Functional cars — one of Cuba’s most sought-after goods — have also featured as athletic gifts in recent memory.
The awards come with the price of becoming an icon of the “revolution.” The pressure on the athletes became a global issue during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics last week when Mijaín López won his fourth gold medal in Greco-Roman wrestling at the event, a record achievement. López dedicated his win to Fidel Castro, but footage following his victory showed Communist Party handlers pressuring him during a call with regime figurehead Miguel Díaz-Canel to more forcefully repeat communist slogans, a sign López’s dedication to the late Castro was not enough.
Cuban athletes also reportedly endure significant abuse at the hands of their handlers. A shocking video leaked in April showed Yipsi Moreno, a former Olympian and current Communist Party athletics official, apparently physically assaulting an athlete and his family.
State security officials appear to aid Moreno in her assault against athlete Briander William Rivero. The incident recalled a similar one in January involving Minister of Culture Alpidio Alonso, caught on video physically beating a protester. He suffered no sanctions for his behavior.
Abuse of athletes, particularly in track and field, has raised questions regarding Cuba’s performance in that athletic category. The Cuban team suffered a high number of injuries at the Tokyo Games in track and field, resulting in no gold medals, including injuries immediately before performances that denied the athletes the ability to compete.
The result of this treatment has been decades of athletes simply escaping the regime. Some of Cuba’s best end up on the Olympic teams of other countries — at least 22 Cubans participated in the Tokyo Summer Games representing countries like Poland, Azerbaijan, and Brazil — while many defect to Spain and the United States to build their careers. Defections began as early as the 1960s, when the regime outlawed private professional athleticism, and has particularly impacted sports like baseball and boxing, where Cuba has traditionally excelled.
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