Athletes win race to defect

NEW YORK - Taking advantage of a rare opportunity to defect to the United States, 39 Cuban athletes attending the Central American and Caribbean Games in Puerto Rico - a US territory - have asked for political asylum, writes Peter Pringle.

Despite increased security for the 900-strong Cuban delegation, a father and son in the archery squad, two champion weightlifters and the country's top female softball pitcher were among those who gave Cuban officials the slip.

Under US law, they can become permament residents within a year of being accepted for asylum. US immigration officials were flying to Puerto Rico to help process the requests.

Anticipating defections, Cuban officials had increased security at the army barracks where the team is housed, 60 miles from the capital, San Juan. Human rights organisations here noted that young athletes have no memory of Fidel Castro's revolution that overthrew the corrupt dictatorship of Fulgencio Batista in 1959.

'If you're 20 and know a friend who went to prison for writing a poem, you want to leave,' said Frank Calzon of Freedom House, the New York human rights group.