INCREDIBLE: A flagship journalist from Industriales was prevented from accessing training

By SwingCompleto / contacto@swingcompleto.com

The 61 National Series it is still far from the voice of playball and from now on, unlikely situations are beginning to arise related to the lack of freedom for journalists, even for the official media.

The COCO radio station has been the press organ most closely linked to Industriales for decades and the station’s narrator-commentator, Andy Vargas, has been considered an indispensable part of the Lions for a work of more than 20 years in which he gained great popularity among players and fans.

But not even the very close bond of this medium and the flagship journalist of the blues prevented a totally criticizable event from taking place after the start of the preselection training commanded by Guillermo Carmona.

Andy was deprived of access to the Santiago “Changa” Mederos stadium, a facility located in the Sports City of the Cerro municipality and where part of the industrial concentrate is being prepared.

Since last year, with the justification of the pandemic, some protocols were established to carry out journalistic work from the preseason phase, a rather bureaucratic process in which to interview or simply coincide in time and space with players and coaches of the capital team, you had to ask a special permit to the INDER press chief in Havana. He would grant it if his superiors agreed with the journalist and the press who requested his assistance.

With the relaxation of laws in recent days, health protection does not seem to be the fundamental reason for severely restricting the presence of journalists in training areas.

The objective of this measure has to do with control over press work, which for a couple of years has been intensified to prevent the leakage of information that can generate controversy through social networks.

It is worth remembering that only members of the official press are allowed to obtain credentials for the coverage of sporting events on the Island, including those concerning the National Series.

What is unheard of is that someone like Andy, with enough experience and results to be known in all the baseball spaces of the capital, has had to return to his station without fulfilling his objective.

COCO itself commented on the matter and several fans echoed what happened through social networks.

Certainly if there are certain compelling reasons that make it impossible for even the most reliable and well-known press to have direct contact with the team to which it is professionally owed, the fairest thing is that there is a convincing explanation that was not actually produced.

Throughout the years it has become a habit for Vargas to carry out reports from the very beginning of the preparation of the twelve-time national champions that are later shared by the millionaire industrialist fanatic. This time it was different and I hope this unfortunate incident does not provoke lasting indignation in the charismatic narrator, who is over 60 years old and the main voice for almost a decade of the night program “Tribuna Deportiva”.