Wednesday 11th August 2021
Homeless after the Olympics
Uruguay accepts boxers
29 athletes do not compete for their home country at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, but in the refugee team. One of them is Eldric Sella, a Venezuelan who last lived in Trinidad and Tobago. But he cannot go back there. Now his hanging game is over.
After the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Uruguay took on the Venezuelan boxer Eldric Sella. “Today I am lucky enough to start over in this country that opened its doors to me without hesitation and gave me the keys to my new home,” wrote the athlete on Instagram. “Here a chapter of my life ends and a new one begins, on a higher level. Thank you Uruguay.”
The 24-year-old Sella was the first Latin American to join the international refugee team in Tokyo. After the end of the Summer Olympics, he had problems returning to Trinidad and Tobago, where he had last lived after fleeing the political crisis in his home country. Because his passport had expired, he could no longer get a new visa.
Uruguay confirmed the admission of a Venezuelan without naming Sella. “With the support of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the International Organization for Migration, our country has taken in a Venezuelan citizen,” said a statement from the Foreign Ministry. Venezuela is in a deep political crisis. The authoritarian government of Nicolás Maduro is taking massive action against members of the opposition, and numerous government critics are in custody. Because of the great economic problems of the once rich country, around 5.6 million Venezuelans have also left their homeland.
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