The Caribbean Series began in Havana in 1949 and in 2025 its 67th edition was played in the Nido de las Aguilas in Mexicali. The Serie del Caribe has a long list of champions, from Almendares of Cuba to the Leones del Escogido, of the Dominican Republic, winner of the last tournament. At the beginning of February we learned that Cuba would be invited to the 2026 Caribbean Series, in its 68th edition, which will take place in Venezuela. The President of the LVBP, Guiseppe Palmisano, confirmed in an interview with ESPN and the colleague Enrique Rojas, that Cuba would be one of the teams invited to the tournament.
Everything indicates that Palmisano has had conversations directly with the Cuban Baseball Federation to finalize the invitation to this 2026 event, but today during a Press Conference held by Juan Reinaldo Pérez Pardo (President of the FCB) at the Latinoamericano Stadium in Havana, he stated that so far Cuba has not officially received a formal invitation from the organizers of the event, the Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation (CBPC) to compete in the tournament.
Cuba’s last participation was in 2023, an event also held in Venezuela. On that occasion they participated with the champion team of the Liga Elite, Agricultores, a representative team from the provinces of Granma and Las Tunas. During that event eight teams attended and the Cuban team finished last after only winning one game out of seven. The Simón Bolívar Monumental Stadium in La Rinconada which was inaugurated for the 2023 Caribbean Series and the Jorge Luis García Carneiro Stadium in La Guaira also served as the venue for that event. For the 2026 edition, the University Stadium of Caracas will also be added to, so three stadiums can be used to host the eight-teams.
In addition to the full members of the CBPC (Caribbean Professional Baseball Confederation), the possible guests are Cuba and teams from Japan, Korea and Italy. Ex- participation that have attended recent editions such as Panama, Colombia, Nicaragua or Curacao were not considered for this event. Almendares was the first Champion of the Caribbean Series in 1949 under the lead of Fermín Guerra after concluding the tournament undefeated (6-0).
In 1952 Havana won the second of these competitions for Cuba on Panamanian soil. Cuban teams closed the last five competitions of the first era starting with a title won by Cienfuegos in 1956. After that year Marianao won in 1957 and 1958, Almanderes in 1959 and Cienfuegos would repeat in 1960 and then Cuban dictator Fidel Castro removed the communist nation from the tournament. Cuba returned to the Caribbean Series in the 2014 Edition that took place in the Islas Margaritas, Venezuela. A year later they would win their eighth and most recent title in these competitions, as Alfonso Urquiola’s Pinar del Río was crowned champions in San Juan, Puerto Rico.