He traveled with nothing more then his clothes and paid US$ 300 to a taxi cab to take him from Rio's Olympic Village in Barra da Tijuca to São Caetano do Sul in the Greater São Paulo, where another Cuban who also defected plays for a professional handball team.

The Cuban athlete explained that he wants to leave Cuba and live in Brazil because he believes Brazil will offer him more professional opportunities. He says he wishes to regularize his situation in the country as soon as possible and for that he will ask the Foreign Ministry for asylum.

"He is extremely scared," said a source at the São Caetano do Sul's Sports Secretariat. "If they find out where he is they might come here to take him by the neck."

Capote has already left São Caetano, however, and nobody seems to know or is willing to tell where he is. In São Caetano do Sul he met his fellow citizen Michel Oquendo, goalkeeper for the IMES/São Caetano handball team. Oquendo had defected himself, two years ago.

At Oquendo's invitation, Capote trained with the team at the end of last week but was told he could no be hired as his colleague because the IMES already has two foreigners, which is the maximum number of foreigners allowed by Brazil's National Handball League regulations.

Capote spent the weekend at the house that Oquendo shares with four other team players. One of them, Caio Cesar Eufrásio told reporters how the athlete showed up: "He only had his clothes on and this led us to give him some clothes and other items."

He apparently get scared after a team of reporters from Globo TV showed at the house.  "After the Globo guys left, he became terrified. He just got his things and disappeared," said Eufrásio.

The story was confirmed by Flávio Pontes, the IMES coordinator, who believes that he got scared that his situation would complicate if he gave any interview or was shown on TV.

IMES' Coach, Washington Nunes, says that he has no idea where Capote is: "I don't know where he is and have no idea what he intends to do."

The Cuban handball team coach, Carlos Carrete Galindo, says that his countryman "defection" served to unite his team even more in their quest for a gold medal. "This has influenced the team, in a positive way," he said. "It united us even more."

Galindo accused Capote of treason from "abandoning a team that trusted his work."

Monday, July 16, Cuban men's handball team won against Chile 40 to 18, advancing together with Brazil to the semifinals of the competition.

Right after the victory, Denip Fonseca Aleaga, from the Cuban team, commented: "We all suffer temptations, but nobody succumbed to them like Capote, who has become a Cuban traitor. We know that other countries offer things that we don't have in ours, but this is not enough for us to simply abandon it."

According to the Brazilian Federal Police and the Conare (Refugees' National Board), Rafael's situation in Brazil for now is legal. But, they inform, he will need to ask for asylum and be granted it in order to be able to work and play professionally in the country.

The authorization, given by the new Ecuadorean government, allowing ex-president Lucio Gutiérrez to leave the country and become a political refugee in Brazil, anticipates the right to request his immediate extradition.

Gutiérrez is being accused by Ecuadorean population of having authorized violent police action against people who were demanding he left the government. Hundreds of Ecuadoreans were wounded during the conflicts, and at least one person died – photographer Julio Garcia.

For security reasons, Brazilian government kept the information about the authorization secret. The authorization was given Friday, but it was only officially confirmed after Gutiérrez fled the country. The document was necessary to warrant the integrity and freedom of the ex-president until his departure to Brazil.

The authorization was signed by the new president Alfredo Palácio, and by Ecuador’s Minister of Foreign Relations, Antonio Parra Gil. The text cites the Brazilian diplomatic note, which explained the asylum as a proposal to “contribute to the democratic stability of Ecuador,” and to the normalization of the country’s internal situation.

Gutiérrez, who was removed by the voting of 60 deputies last Wednesday, April 20, arrived in Brazil Sunday. The ex-president, his wife, Ximena Bohórquez, and their 15-year old daughter, Viviana Estefaní­a, will stay at a Brazilian Army hotel, located in Brasí­lia, until they obtain formal visas.

He was received by families of the Brazilian military. No diplomat of the Ecuadorean embassy was present at the arrival.

Tomorrow, Brazil’s Minister of Justice, Márcio Thomaz Bastos, will receive Gutiérrez, to formalize his request for political asylum.

In Brazil, the asylum is granted for a two-year period, with the possibility of extension.

Even though President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva had already conceded the authorization, formal requirement is indispensable.

Agência Brasil

Of the nearly 20 million refugees in the world, slightly more than 3 thousand are in Brazil. The advisor to the National Committee for Refugees (Conare), Renato Zerbini Ribeiro Leão, observed, yesterday, that refugees here can rely on real protection.

“Brazil’s refugee protection legislation is one of the most highly developed in the world,” he affirmed, referring to Law 9,474 from 1997.

Leão took part in a meeting in Brasí­lia to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the Cartagena Declaration on Refugees and discuss the situation of refugees in the member countries of the Mercosur (Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Uruguay).

For Leão, who is also the Presiding Director of the International Human Rights Protection Center (CPIDH), there is strong cooperation among the government, civil society, and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, forming a truly effective protection network in Brazil.

He also stated that, when they arrive in Brazil, refugees are given the opportunity to become part of society, where they are well cared for. “They receive documents and training to engage in professional activities. Many countries still lack the specific legislation that exists in Brazil. In these States, refugees are not as well protected,” he said.

Agência Brasil
Reporter: Danielle Gurgel
Translator: David Silberstein