In July 1997, Paret and his Villa Clara teammates Osmani García and Angel López spoke with Cuban defector Rolando Arrojo by telephone. As a result, they were banned from Cuban baseball for "maintaining contact with baseball traitors."[3] The ban has since been lifted.
On July 28, 2006, ESPN.com reported that Paret and Yulieski Gurriel had defected from Cuba and into Colombia.
.[4] Days later, Gurriel denied the report.[5]