Cuban Coach Seeks Asylum; 6 Others Miss Flight Home

A Cuban baseball coach skipped the flight home Tuesday after a game against the Baltimore Orioles and asked for asylum in the United States.

Six other Cubans who missed the plane are believed to have done so accidentally and will be allowed to return home without U.S. government interference, Justice Department officials said Tuesday night.

Rigoberto Herrera, a 54-year-old pitching coach, walked into the downtown police headquarters about 10 a.m. Tuesday, a police spokesman said.

The lieutenant on duty “through an interpreter, understood he was requesting asylum and immediately notified INS officials,” said spokesman Robert Weinhold. The Immigration and Naturalization Service took custody of Herrera, he said.

Rep. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), a critic of Fidel Castro’s regime, said the man’s full name is Rigoberto Herrera Betancourt.

Menendez said two other Cubans may also have asked for asylum but the Justice Department officials, asking not to be identified, said they were not aware of any such request.

The official Cuban government list of the delegation that traveled to Baltimore included Rigoberto Betancourt. The government news agency said he is a 54-year-old retired pitcher.

He played Cuban baseball between 1965 and 1975 and was known for an excellent curveball. Three times he was part of Cuba’s national team--during the Central American-Caribbean games in Puerto Rico in 1966, in the Pan American games in Winnipeg in 1967 and during a tour of Mexico.

He most recently worked as a pitching trainer.

Cuban officials denied that any members of the delegation had defected but said six Cubans had overslept and missed the plane.

“We have no defectors,” the spokesman for the Cuban diplomatic mission in Washington, Luis Fernandez, told Associated Press. “I have no information that there are any defectors.”

He said the six were planning to catch another flight home today.

More than 300 Cubans were part of the delegation that attended Monday night’s game, which the Cuban all-stars won, 12-6.