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Infobae compiles at least ten cases of former Cuban champions who say they were abandoned after retiring
The round-up, published on Sunday, starts from the video of three-time Olympic champion Félix Savón scavenging for food in the street and gathers complaints from boxers, a chess grandmaster, a pitcher and a basketball player documented by independent outlets.
A 17-second video in which Félix Savón, three-time Olympic boxing champion, says “I'm picking up food, food to eat” drew more than a million views in 24 hours, according to the round-up Infobae published on Sunday. The clip was posted on October 11 on the BoxeoCubano Facebook page and picked up by Periódico Cubano; it is not known who filmed it, or where or when it happened.
Savón won Olympic gold in Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, along with six world amateur titles. Infobae places his case in a pattern: Gaspar Casamayor Álvarez, who holds a Sporting Glory credential from the National Institute of Sports, Physical Education and Recreation (INDER), was documented in March by Cubanoticias 360 asking for money and selling belongings to eat in Santiago de Cuba, and Leonardo Winter Echeverría, with 207 bouts, lives in Banes with knee arthritis and says he receives no support from INDER.
Bernardo Comas Aguilera, world amateur champion in Munich 1982 and now 65, has senile dementia in Camagüey. His mother, his main caregiver, described a leaking home to CiberCuba: “When it rains, I don't sleep.” The family lives on 8,000 pesos a month from the former boxer's pension and 3,000 from the mother's retirement. The provincial INDER rejected the accusations of neglect in October and said it maintains “visits, medical care, institutional support and public tributes,” though, according to CiberCuba, it produced no records to back that up.
International Grandmaster Jesús Nogueiras Santiago, who represented Cuba at 14 chess olympiads, publicly accused INDER of denying him the food guarantee he had been promised. Pitcher Braudilio Vinent, with 221 wins in 20 seasons and now over 70, told CiberCuba: “I sacrificed myself for the Revolution, and now nobody remembers me.”
Infobae adds the cases of former Granma player Víctor Tornés, reported to be living in neglect after a stroke; the wife of Olympic champion Andrés Aldama, 70, who has dementia and diabetes and asked publicly for help in Matanzas; and former basketball player Félix Morales Alfonso, 73, a two-time Olympian, filmed in August selling goods in Cárdenas, Matanzas.
Sources: Infobae · Serie Yamacoa: Dólar en el mercado informal (elTOQUE (tasa representativa))
Data updated: 2026-10-25T20:00:00.000Z