The Senior League Baseball World Series is underway this week in Easley, South Carolina, but a Venezuelan Little League team that qualified for the tournament is not there. The team was denied entry into the United States and forced to stay home.
Why the team could not secure visas
The Venezuelan team made the World Series for 13-to-16-year-olds by winning the Latin America championship in Mexico. The team then traveled to Bogota, Colombia, and applied for visas at the U.S. Embassy. The requests were denied, making them ineligible to compete in the tournament.
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Venezuela is on a list of nearly 20 countries facing restrictions and is subject to a full or partial travel ban enacted under the Trump administration due to national security concerns.
The presidential proclamation on Venezuela states: “Venezuela lacks a competent or cooperative central authority for issuing passports or civil documents, and it does not have appropriate screening and vetting measures. Venezuela has refused to accept back its removable nationals. “
Reaction to the rejection
Little League International confirmed the team’s visa denial.
“The Cacique Mara Little League team from Venezuela was unfortunately unable to obtain the appropriate visas to travel to the Senior League Baseball World Series,” the league said in a statement provided to ESPN.
Tournament officials replaced the Venezuelan team with the runner-up in the Latin American championship, Santa Maria de Aguayo from Mexico.
Kendrick Gutiérrez, the president of the Venezuelan league, expressed outrage.
“It shouldn’t end this way,” he said. “They’re going to replace us with another team because relations have been severed. It’s not fair. “
The team also issued a statement to ESPN after their visa requests were rejected while they were in Bogota, saying, “What do we do with so much injustice, what do we do with the pain that was caused to our children?”
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The U.S. suspended all operations at the embassy in Caracas, Venezuela, in 2019.
Trump administration and Maduro regime
The U.S. has been at odds with the government of President Nicolás Maduro for years and does not recognize the legitimacy of his leadership due to allegations of election fraud and irregularities. U.S. officials have also accused Maduro of human rights violations.
In May, the U.S. State Department issued a travel advisory warning Americans not to travel to Venezuela, calling it an extreme danger.
“Do not travel to or remain in Venezuela due to the high risk of wrongful detention, torture in detention, terrorism, kidnapping, arbitrary enforcement of local laws, crime, civil unrest and poor health infrastructure,” the notice read. “All U.S. citizens and Lawful Permanent Residents in Venezuela are strongly advised to depart immediately.”
