Two Cuban weightlifters, Yorelvis Machado Olivera and Yeniuska Mirabal Feria, left Cuba’s delegation in Tepic, Mexico, this week without competing in a qualifying tournament for the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima. Their departure is another humiliation for a regime that keeps losing its best talent to the search for freedom.
Machado, in the 88-kilogram category, and Mirabal, in the 77-kilogram category, were scheduled to lift on Wednesday, October 7, but by then they had already walked away from the team, Cubalite reported, citing a member of the national squad. Cuba lost two of the six lifters it sent to Mexico.
The team flew out on October 1. Other members of the delegation included Ludia Montero Ramos, Marifelix Sarría Ruiz, Otto Felix Oñate Araujo and Edisnel Corrales Rondón.
Read Cubalite’s original Facebook post (in Spanish).
Cubanos por el Mundo first reported the story in Spanish: read our original coverage of the departures in Mexico.
What the Cuban weightlifters left behind in Tepic
The event was the second weightlifting qualifier for the 2027 Pan American Games, which Lima will host from July 23 to August 8, 2027. It was organized by Panam Sports and the Pan American Weightlifting Federation, with the Mexican Olympic Committee, and it wrapped up on Thursday, October 8.
Both athletes were considered strong contenders for a ticket to Lima, according to Cubalite. Instead of stepping onto the platform, they chose not to go back to the island.
Otto Oñate finished fourth in Tepic, the same outlet reported. Machado and Mirabal left before they could compete there, against a backdrop of serious structural problems suffocating Cuban sports.
Results on the platform, silence from Cuban officials
Cuban officials tried to put a positive spin on the fiasco. National commissioner Camilo Reynaldo Ramírez told the state-run sports outlet Jit that it “was a successful event” and that “the objectives were met,” as quoted by 14ymedio. He said nothing about the departures that embarrassed the dictatorship.
Alongside the commissioner, coaches Yoani Giniebra Junco and Gabriel Esquivel Pérez, physical therapist Hector Rodríguez Martínez and official Liliam López Rubio failed in the role the regime assigns them: keeping athletes under ideological lock and key.
Rather than acknowledge that failure, Jit celebrated Marifelix Sarría’s two gold medals and one bronze, Ludia Montero’s two silvers and one bronze, and Edisnel Corrales’ three bronzes. That official tally did nothing to address the deeper institutional crisis the regime has imposed on Cuban sports.
Yorelvis Machado and Yeniuska Mirabal: who they are
Yorelvis Machado, from Jiguaní in Granma province, turns 22 in January. He had been seen as a strong contender after winning two bronze medals in Santo Domingo in August. The regime had used those achievements for propaganda before the athlete chose to leave its oppressive system behind.
Yeniuska Mirabal, 29, is from Guantánamo. She has competed in several Pan American Championships and won two silver medals at the 2023 Central American and Caribbean Games in San Salvador, according to Cubalite.
Neither of the two Cuban weightlifters has spoken publicly so far, and their whereabouts have not been disclosed.
Cuban athletes defect at event after event
The desire to escape the regime’s grip keeps resurfacing in Cuba’s international delegations. In Santo Domingo, fencers Adam Núñez and Hershey Daniela de la Cruz left, as did softball outfielder Yasmani Álvarez.
They were joined by field hockey goalkeeper Moisés David Torres Puig, who reportedly pretended to have been injured, asked for ice and left in a ride-hailing vehicle before playing a single minute.
Shortly afterward, rower Leah Daniela Almeida, who had won gold alongside Ana Jiménez, also left, according to journalist Francys Romero. More Cuban athletes were breaking the chains that tied them to the dictatorship.
It did not start in Santo Domingo. In July, Cuban kayakers walked away from their delegation in Canada (article in Spanish). Counting the two Cuban weightlifters in Tepic, at least seven athletes have left the island’s teams since the Santo Domingo games.
Departures expose the crisis in Cuban sports
Each new departure tears another hole in the facade of a regime that exploits human effort to sustain its privileged ruling class.
The latest cases expose a system in decay, where the most meaningful victory an athlete can claim is escaping hunger, ideological control and the relentless oppression that suffocates the island.
These athletes’ stories show that military and political controls cannot extinguish the desire for freedom. At international competitions, the communist leadership keeps losing talented people who reject its model of modern-day servitude.
What we know so far
- Yorelvis Machado (88 kg) and Yeniuska Mirabal (77 kg) left the Cuban team in Tepic, Mexico, before competing on October 7.
- The tournament was a qualifier for the 2027 Pan American Games in Lima.
- Cuban sports authorities have not commented on the departures.
- The athletes have not made public statements, and their destination is unknown.
