Even Youth Sports Aren’t Safe from Rubio’s Wrath

So far this year, Sosa says, US visas have been denied for thirty-five Cuban athletes, coaches, and sports officials, while applications for thirty-two other visas have gone unanswered by the competition dates. In February, six Cuban table tennis players and coaches were unable to attend the ITTF (International Table Tennis Federation) Pan American Cup in California.

Then in March, fourteen track and field athletes were blocked from participating in the 2025 World Masters Athletics Indoor Championships, an event for competitors thirty-five and older, in Gainesville, Florida.

At the start of summer, all seventeen members of the Cuban women’s volleyball team were denied the chance to compete in the Women’s Final Four of the North, Central America and Caribbean Volleyball Confederation, which was held in Manatí, Puerto Rico. The denial prevented them from earning additional points to qualify for the Volleyball Nations League, one of the sport’s most important tournaments.

“It’s frustrating because you prepare mentally for the event, knowing you have to give your best and train hard,” said James Marín. “Nobody wants to miss an event when they know they have a real shot at competing well and winning a medal.”

The visa denials also hit the players economically. “Scouts attend these tournaments,” said Wilfredo Robinson, head coach of the women’s national volleyball team. “Players who stand out can attract attention from professional teams and they can get contracts. And now they’ve lost that opportunity.”

Contracts with foreign teams can be an economic lifeline for Cuban athletes.

“We’re going through tough times in Cuba right now and our salary isn’t enough to support our families,” said Espinosa. “A contract would help me a lot both economically and for my growth as a basketball player.”

Even when the United States has approved some visa requests, it has denied or failed to issue others, making team travel and participation impossible.

In July, the US embassy granted visas to fourteen players on the Cuban girls’ softball team comprised of players between the ages of nine and ten, but did not grant them to the seven adult members of the coaching staff, meaning they were without a chaperone. The team was supposed to compete in the Caribbean qualifying tournament for the Little League Softball World Series in Puerto Rico. Needless to say, the girls were unable to travel alone.

Cuba’s Baseball and Softball Federation called the decision unfair and discriminatory, adding that it is “cruel to play with the expectations of kids.”

An “Unprecedented” Crackdown

Visa denials of Cuban athletes are not new. As far back as 1966, the United States initially denied visas to Cuban athletes competing in the Central American and Caribbean Games in San Juan, Puerto Rico. However, the visas were eventually granted with Cuban athletes barred from traveling on Cuban planes or ships.

Determined to compete, the Cuban delegation boarded the cargo ship Cerro Pelado, training during the voyage. Five miles off land, they transferred to Puerto Rican boats and made it in time for the opening ceremony. Cuba finished second overall, with thirty-five gold medals, just behind Mexico’s thirty-eight.

But Sosa says the de facto travel ban imposed by Trump is unprecedented: “No US president has ever gone to such lengths to target Cuban athletes. Meanwhile, Cuba hasn’t denied a single visa to any US citizen coming here for sports events.”

The State Department acknowledged a request for comment but did not provide a response by the deadline.

However, the impact of US policy on Cuban sports has gone beyond visa denials. Last week, the Cuban Baseball and Softball Federation revealed it had not been able to submit the national team’s fifty-player roster to Major League Baseball for the 2026 World Baseball Classic (WBC) because the Trump administration had not approved Cuba’s participation. The federation condemned the US government’s “discriminatory policy against Cuban players.”

Before allowing Cuba to compete, US sanctions require MLB to request a license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), which, in turn, routinely defers to the State Department. The matter could still be resolved. A similar delay occurred in 2023, but OFAC eventually approved the license in time for Cuba to participate. The Cuban team made it to the WBC semifinals in Miami, where players and family members were harassed and had objects thrown at them while stadium security largely stood by and did nothing. This time, though, Cuban athletes face an even more hostile political climate — both in Miami and Washington.

Meanwhile, other countries are also facing US pressure to exclude Cuba. In June 2024, the Cayman Islands forfeited a soccer match in Cuba, fearing the United States would revoke its players’ visa waiver privileges.

And in July, Hugo Calderano, the reigning World Cup champion in table tennis, announced he could not compete in the WTT Grand Smash in Las Vegas because he was stripped of his US visa waiver after traveling to Cuba in 2023 for the Pan American Championship and Olympic qualifiers.

The removal of visa waiver privileges for citizens of other countries who simply visit Cuba became official policy during the Biden administration, justified as an inevitable byproduct of Trump’s January 2021 designation of Cuba as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism.”

There has long been  a consensus in the US intelligence community that Cuba does not sponsor terrorism. In its final days in office, the Biden administration finally moved to take Cuba off the list, citing a lack of “credible evidence.” But upon Trump’s first day back in the White House, he reaffirmed Cuba’s place on the terror blacklist with a stroke of his pen.

The Absurdity of “Athletes as Terrorists”

Thanks to Trump’s executive action earlier this year, “terrorism” is now being cited as a reason for the visa denials.

According to the official US government letter denying visas to the Cuban women’s volleyball team, the action was taken to “protect the United States from foreign terrorists and other national security threats.” It referenced Trump’s “travel ban,” announced in June, which used the same reasoning to bar nationals of twelve countries from entering the United States and restricted entry for nationals of seven others — including Cuba.

The ban includes an exception for athletes, team members, coaches, and their immediate relatives traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting events. But visa requests are still subject to the whims of a consular officer, and ultimately, at the mercy of Rubio.

In May 2025, three of Cuba’s top Olympic officials — including Cuban Olympic Committee president Roberto León Richards — were not granted visas to attend regional Olympic committee meetings in Miami and Puerto Rico.

“This threatens our teams’ ability to participate in the 2028 Los Angeles Games,” said Sosa. “It’s a clear violation of Article 6 of the Olympic Charter, which guarantees all athletes the right to participate on equal terms, without discrimination based on sex, race, political belief, or nationality.”

According to Sosa, Cuba has complained to the International Olympic Committee, Panam Sports (an organization that represents the national Olympic committees in the Western Hemisphere), and Centro Caribe Sports, a regional sports federation that oversees the Central American and Caribbean Games.

Cuba’s last recourse would be to appeal to the Switzerland-based Court of Arbitration for Sport, which settles international sports disputes. “Supposedly, the Olympics are a movement of fraternity, solidarity, and brotherhood among all the world’s athletes,” said Sosa. “But our athletes aren’t experiencing that right now.”

Sanctions Strangle Cuban Sports

The visa denials are yet another blow to Cuban athletes, who already face increasingly precarious conditions.

The US embargo prevents Cuba from buying equipment, clothing, or shoes directly from US manufacturers, forcing equipment purchases from other countries that can drive up costs more than 50 percent, according to INDER. Even donations of sports equipment from the United States have also been blocked. And since 2014, Cuba has been unable to collect payments for the broadcast rights of international competitions, according to Oliet Rodríguez, president of the Cuban Football Association.

Astonishingly enough, the island has also been prevented from receiving prize money earned in various competitions. Cuba was forced to forfeit its winnings for its second-place finish in the inaugural 2006 World Baseball Classic due to US sanctions. And Cuba has yet to receive prize money it earned at the World Athletics Relays in Poland in May 2021 or the World Athletics Championship in Hungary in August 2023, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cuban players, Sosa said, were able to receive compensation for competing in the 2023 World Baseball Classic, but the coaches were not.

The total financial impact of US sanctions on Cuban sports amounted to more than $4 million in 2024, according to Sosa — a hefty toll for a country with a GDP of less than a third of 1 percent of America’s.

“It’s not a huge sum, but for a blockaded country like ours, that money could mean sports equipment, better conditions for athletes, and the chance to take part in international events,” she said.

The indirect impact of US policy on Cuban sports may be even greater. Washington’s “maximum-pressure” sanctions have devastated Cuba’s economy, decimating government budgets for health care, education, culture and sports, and fueling an unprecedented exodus from the island that has included many of Cuba’s most talented athletes.

Cuban sports officials expect harder times ahead.

“The US government’s policies are only going to keep hardening, and that will keep limiting Cuba, Cuban sports, and our athletes, who continue training despite our country’s economic constraints,” said Dalia Henry, an official with Cuba’s basketball federation.

Despite it all, Cuba continues to punch above its weight in international competitions — when the players are able to get there. At the 2024 Paris Olympics, Cuba won more medals than any other Latin American country except Brazil.

“We’re going to keep fighting,” said Deziret Madan, a player on the Cuban national women’s volleyball team. “We’ll go to the competitions, when we’re allowed to, and we’ll give our best.”