Cuba
ITF
La historia del Taekwondo ITF en Cuba es la de una resistencia civil: fundada en 1994 por el Maestro Julián Reina Sánchez sin apoyo estatal, enseñando de forma gratuita durante décadas, sobreviviendo la fragmentación del ITF internacional y los vaivenes políticos de la isla. Mientras el WT cubano gozaba del respaldo del INDER, el ITF creció desde cero en un pabellón de La Habana con 30 alumnos y la convicción de un solo hombre que había conocido personalmente al General Choi Hong Hi. En febrero de 2025, tras años de gestiones, la ACAM —Asociación Cubana de Artes Marciales— emitió el reconocimiento oficial del ITF en Cuba.
North Korean Seed
The seed — North Korean instructors in Havana
Socialist diplomacy: ITF TKD arrives with the North Korean embassy
In 1986, two North Korean instructors — Li Yon Sor and Pe Jo Mian — arrived in Havana as part of the diplomatic framework between Cuba and North Korea. Their assignment was the MININT, Cuba's Interior Ministry, where they began teaching ITF Taekwondo to security forces personnel. In December 1986 the first recorded competition between ITF and WT practitioners took place in Cuba, a remarkable moment of internal coexistence between the two systems on the island.
The programme, however, was short-lived. By 1988 it had ceased and the North Korean instructors departed. Of everything they left behind, the most lasting legacy was a single Cuban practitioner: Julián Reina, the only student who absorbed the ITF system deeply enough to carry it forward alone. Without his persistence, the ITF tradition in Cuba would likely have ended entirely with the departure of its founders.
“En 1988 el programa cesó y los norcoreanos se fueron. Julián Reina se quedó — y con él, el ITF en Cuba.”
Foundation
Julián Reina — the man who founded Cuban ITF from zero
1994: 30 students at the Pabellón Cuba, no state support, free classes
In 1994, Julián Reina founded the Unión Cubana de Taekwondo ITF with thirty students in the Pabellón Cuba sports complex in Havana. Classes were free. There was no state backing, no INDER recognition, no institutional funding — only Reina's conviction that the ITF system deserved a home on the island. That same year, General Choi Hong Hi himself visited Cuba, observed Reina's work, and promoted him to 4th Dan — a moment of direct legitimation from the ITF's founder.
The momentum accelerated in 1995 when eighty-five instructors from other martial arts disciplines — judo, karate, wrestling — requested training in the ITF system, recognising its technical depth. By 1999, Cuba was sufficiently organised to send athletes to the first Pan American ITF Championship in Argentina, completing the first phase of institutional consolidation. Reina's achievement — building a federation from nothing, without state resources, in a country where sport is almost entirely state-controlled — remains one of the most remarkable stories in Cuban martial arts.
“Las clases eran gratuitas, no había local propio, no había apoyo del Estado. Pero el ITF no desapareció de Cuba.”
Fragmentation
The ITF schism and Cuba between three lines
Post-Choi: Chang Ung, Choi Hu Haw, Trajtenberg — Cuba navigates the storm
When General Choi Hong Hi died in 2002, the ITF fractured into competing factions, each claiming legitimate succession. In 2004, Chang Ung — the North Korean representative who would become IOC member — visited Cuba attempting to bring the Cuban ITF under his branch. The visit was refused. In 2005, the Cuban federation aligned itself with the line of Choi Hu Haw, one of the General's sons, which seemed the more stable option at the time.
The institutional landscape shifted again in 2013, when Pablo Trajtenberg's Argentina-aligned ITF emerged as the dominant international faction, recognised as the most legitimate successor by the broadest coalition of national federations. Cuba had to navigate each of these transitions with limited resources and in relative diplomatic isolation, maintaining its organisational continuity through personal relationships and technical credibility rather than institutional leverage.
“Tres líneas del ITF disputaron Cuba durante una década. En 2013, Trajtenberg ganó la partida.”
Recognition
Official recognition — the Cuban state accepts the ITF
February 2025: ACAM issues the certificate that closes 30 years of institutional struggle
In February 2025, the Cuban Association of Martial Arts (ACAM) issued the official certificate recognising the ITF Taekwondo federation in Cuba. The moment marked the close of a thirty-year chapter that had begun with Julián Reina's thirty students in the Pabellón Cuba. Among those recognised in the process were Pedro Rodríguez and Maestro Gato Gato, key figures in keeping the organisation alive through decades of institutional invisibility. The certificate covered 36 active practitioners and included the formal promotion of 7 students.
The recognition is more than administrative: it means Cuban ITF practitioners can now access INDER facilities, receive state coaching support, and compete officially under the Cuban flag. For a federation built entirely on volunteer effort and personal dedication, the ACAM certificate represents the completion of a cycle — thirty years of building something real without any of the tools the state-controlled system normally provides.
“Treinta años enseñando gratis, sin local, sin INDER. En 2025, el Estado finalmente los reconoció.”
Taekwondo en Cuba
- ›7.° Dan ITF — autorizado a examinar hasta 7.° Dan
- ›Fundador de la Unión Cubana de Taekwondo ITF (1994)
- ›Promovido directamente por el General Choi Hong Hi (1994, 1995)
- ›Mantuvo el ITF vivo en Cuba durante 6 años sin apoyo institucional (1988–1994)
- ›Modelo de enseñanza gratuita desde la fundación
Sigue explorando
La historia del Taekwondo continúa en cada dojang, en cada clase, en cada estudiante.