By TRACEY EATON / The Dallas Morning News

HAVANA – Cuba is pulling out of next month's Central American and Caribbean Games in El Salvador because it says exiles are planning to assassinate the island's
top Olympic official and kidnap or carry out attacks against Cuban athletes.

Cuban officials allege that El Salvador has become a favorite staging area for Miami-based Cuban exiles who plan attacks against the socialist government.

"With the complicity of its highest authorities, El Salvador has been the main center of operations of the terrorist mafia of Miami against our people," a government
statement released Saturday night said.

Salvadoran officials had no immediate response. Cuba and El Salvador have not had diplomatic relations since 1961, two years after Fidel Castro took power.
Some Salvadorans have complained about Cubans engaged in espionage in the Central American country. Cubans are unapologetic, saying they are only trying to
defend themselves.

In 1997, two Salvadorans were convicted of planting bombs in Havana hotels and in La Bodeguita del Medio, a famed Ernest Hemingway watering hole. One
Italian tourist was killed in the bombing spree.

Cuban officials allege that a powerful Miami lobby group, the Cuban-American National Foundation, helped plan the attacks, a charge the group denied.

Cuban leaders say they decided not to compete in El Salvador after its intelligence services detected plans to assassinate Cuban Olympic Committee President José
Fernández. They didn't give details of a plot. Nor did they elaborate on the alleged plans to attack or kidnap athletes.

The government statement said Cuba asked El Salvador about security measures planned for the games but received no response.

Salvadoran officials have "neither the will nor the capability to control the actions of terrorist groups and elements that operate there," the statement said.

It also noted that in a recent baseball tournament in Mexico, "brain thieves and shameless scouts ... made life impossible" for Cuban players. The situation will be
even worse in El Salvador, "where terrorists and pirates enjoy total impunity, and the cooperation of the highest level officials responsible for security and internal
order," the statement said.

During the Mexico tournament, one of the island's best pitchers, Jose Ariel Contreras, defected and he is now in the United States.

The Central American and Caribbean Games have been staged 18 times since 1926 and are the oldest continuing regional games. Mexico has topped the medal
charts eight times. Cuba has won 10 times, eight since 1970.

About 2,000 Cuban athletes had been training for the games, to be Nov. 23 to Dec. 7 in San Salvador.

Cuban officials say they'll stage the island's first Cuban Olympics.