6 More Defect on Dominican Pan Am Team

Six more athletes from the Dominican Republic left their delegation at the Pan American Games today and headed to New York to find work, bringing to eight the number of players to leave the team in two days.

Jose Joaquin Puello, president of the Dominican Olympic team, said wrestlers Fausto Santana and Francisco Lora and weightlifters Manuel Volques, Angel Diaz, Angel Bernal and Luis Emilio Schowe left the Olympic Village shortly after midnight.

Puello confirmed that six of the athletes were members of the army whose sole job was to compete in sports.

Puello said the athletes had apparently formed a plan before arriving in Indianapolis to leave the team before taking part in the competition. Two members of the cycling team, Gustavo Deschamps and Teodoro Souza, left Monday before their event.

Puello said two of the athletes were seen taking their passports from the suitcase of a weightlifting trainer shortly after midnight. Puello refused to name the athletes.

Members of the Dominican team have a three-month visa to travel in the United States. After that time they become illegal aliens and are subject to arrest and deportation.