Illustrative image taken from the Escambray newspaper.

Havana, May 13 (RHC)-- The Caribbean Confederation of Professional Baseball (CBPC) announced Friday in the Dominican Republic that Cuba will participate as a guest in the Caribbean Baseball Series, which will take place in February 2023 in the Venezuelan cities of La Guaira and Caracas.

The decision was adopted after several weeks of dialogues between the main leader of the CBPC, Juan Francisco Puello and the representatives of the participating circuits of Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Venezuela, Panama and Colombia, who agreed to the expansion of the event, which will also include Curacao.

According to press reports, the upcoming 65th edition of the Caribbean Series will have eight teams for the first time.

Cuban baseball players return with the endorsement of having dominated the competition between 1949 and 1960, when they won seven first places -the last five in a row-, but were absent after the elimination of professionalism in Cuba.

Their most recent guest appearances were in the 2014, 2015 and 2016 editions, when they were present with the national champion teams, Azucareros, Alazanes de Granma -they won- and Leñadores de Las Tunas.

Unfortunately, the participation of Cuba, one of the founding nations and first winner, was interrupted three years ago, with the justification of alleged difficulties with the time available to process the U.S. visas required to travel to Puerto Rico.