By Jose Loria
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (Reuters) - Recently defected Cuban baseball star Orlando Hernandez said Friday he fled his homeland because he was being persecuted by the Communist regime's secret police.
"I decided I'd rather die at sea than be thrown into prison,'' Hernandez said in Costa Rica, where the half brother of World Series hero Livan Hernandez has taken refuge after defecting to the Bahamas from Cuba wearing only shorts and a T-shirt.
Cuba's secret police told him "Havana will crumple you smaller than a cent,'' Hernandez claimed, saying the defection of Livan in 1996 had cast doubts on his own loyalty to Fidel Castro's regime.
Known as "El Duque'' (the Duke) for his pitching prowess and expected to win a multimillion-dollar contact in the United States, Hernandez arrived in Costa Rica Wednesday night with six other Cuban ballplayers.
"We came to Costa Rica looking for the dream of freedom and we found it,'' he told reporters.
Regarded as perhaps even more talented than his half-brother, Hernandez said he intended to train in Costa Rica for a month and then travel to the Dominican Republic. His final destination, however, is clear: the big leagues.
After Livan's desertion during the Atlanta Olympics, Cuban authorities banned Orlando from baseball for life. Hernandez says he was shunned by his former teammates and hounded and tormented by authorities.
"They threatened us and warned us we were going to disappear,'' he alleged, referring also to his colleagues.
The Cuban baseball star said he was not upset at news reports he had decided to delay his arrival in the United States in order to stoke up bidding for his talents.
"I earned $8 a month in Cuba,'' he said.
The idea of leaving Cuba matured for some time in his mind, he said. Originally, he had planned on escaping after New Year's Day but was forced to bring forward his plans because word leaked out and the secret police were on the lookout.
Early in the morning on Dec. 26, the day after Christmas, the group left in a small boat built of scrap wood and equipped with only a handful of canned food. The makeshift boat carried them for a day before sinking, fortunately for them in sight of a deserted island belonging to the Bahamas.
But they spent three days without food before they were picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard.
The baseball player was offered a courtesy visa for the United States but declined to take it up because all his colleagues were not included in the offer.
"It was simply a question of solidarity. We would have no heart, no morality nor principles if we had left the other five,'' Hernandez said, insisting he had not rejected the U.S. visa.
01:59 a.m. Jan 10, 1998 Eastern
REUTERS