NAMES IN THE NEWS : Cuba Calls Defector a Traitor
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HAVANA — 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.”
“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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