Carlos Delgado must wait for another opportunity to make his managerial debut for Puerto Rico. On Tuesday, the mayor of Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, Julio Roldán Concepción, announced that the upcoming Copa Unión Antillana, a three-team tournament between Puerto Rico, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic, has been postponed.
The Copa Unión Antillana was to begin on Friday, February 21, and end on Sunday, February 23. The games were to occur at Estadio Luis A. “Canena” Márquez in Aguadilla, Puerto Rico. On Monday evening, insurance about the event began to dwindle after the Federación Cubana de Beisbol y Softbol announced Cuba would not participate. In a letter sent to the organizers of the Copa Unión Antillana, the FCBS stated the difficulty of processing visas to enter Puerto Rico.
According to El Vocero de Puerto Rico, a Puerto Rican daily newspaper and website, Roldán Concepción has not received a notice from representatives of the Dominican Republic, but their exclusion also seemed likely. Additionally, the mayor cited potential safety concerns regarding each fan base.
“It is regrettable to see how, even in sport, this decision for federal intervention affects our daily life,” Roldán Concepción said in a statement translated from Spanish to English on the El Vocero de Puerto Rico website. “We have seen the adverse effect on the economy, on immigrant communities that contribute their work and effort to the economy of our country.”
Roldán Concepción added that the event is being reorganized, and when new dates are chosen, an announcement will be made. No further details were mentioned about when and where the reorganized Copa Unión Antillana would occur.
“We were organizing a high-caliber and highly competitive baseball event between Puerto Rico and our Caribbean brothers from Cuba and the Dominican Republic,” Roldán Gonzalez, an event organizer, said in the article posted to El Vocero de Puerto Rico’s website. “In truth, it was going to be a great opportunity to strengthen the ties that sport provokes in our villages.”
