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NAMES IN THE NEWS : Cuba Calls Defector a Traitor

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<i> From Times wire services</i>

Cuba Wednesday described jazz trumpeter Arturo Sandoval, who has defected to the United States, as a traitor who abandoned his country like a rat leaving a ship in danger.

Sandoval decided to defect during a recent tour of Europe and has since traveled to the United States, the Cuban news agency Prensa Latina said in a rare official Cuban confirmation of a defection.

Prensa Latina quoted a statement from the state-run Cuban Institute of Music as saying that the trumpeter had “betrayed his country.”

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“In times of danger, rats abandon the ship to drown themselves in an infinite sea of dishonor and shame,” the statement said.

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