A Venezuelan baseball team was refused Visa in the United States and will miss the Senior Baseball World Series this year, Little League International confirmed Friday.
The Cacique Mara team, from Maracaibo, Venezuela, was planned to participate in the tournament after winning the Latin -American championship in Mexico.
“The Cacique Mara Little League team from Venezuela was unfortunately unable to get the right visa to travel to the Senior League Baseball World Series,” said Little League International in a statement and added that it is “extremely disappointing, especially for these young athletes.”
The Venezuelan team traveled to Colombia two weeks ago to apply for their visas at the American embassy in Bogota.
“It is a spot on the part of the small competition to keep us here in Bogotá in the hope that our children can fulfill their dreams to participate in a world championship,” the team said in a statement. “What do we do with so much injustice, what do we do with the pain our children was caused?”
Venezuela belongs to a list of countries with restrictions on entering the US or its areas. President Donald Trump has banned the trip to the US from 12 other countries, referring to concern about national security.
Donald Trump posted Venezuela at the start of the travel ban in the United States on June
It means that a Venezuelan Little League team cannot compete in an event in South Carolina
Earlier in the month, the Cuban women’s volleyball team Visa was refused to participate in a tournament in Puerto Rico.
The fate of those teams is striking, because when Trump announced his travel ban at the beginning of June, the White House stated that certain sporting events would not be affected.
For example, Iran is on the forbidden list, but has also qualified for the World Cup 2026, organized in the United States, Mexico and Canada next summer.
The White House told Daily Mail in June that exemptions are present for ‘athletes or members of athletic teams, including coaches and support staff, and athletes traveling for the World Cup, Olympic Games or other sporting events’.
But it seems that the Senior League Baseball World Series, the tournament from Saturday for players aged 13-16 in South Carolina, is not covered by that category.
“They told us that Venezuela is on a list because Trump says that Venezuelans pose a threat to the safety of his state, of his country,” said Kendrick Gutiérrez, the president of the competition in Venezuela. “The situation has not been easy; We have deserved the right to represent Latin -America in the world championship. ‘
The tournament organizers replaced the Venezuelans through the Santa Maria de Aguayo team from Tamaulipas, Mexico, the team that was a second place in the Latin American championship.
‘I think this is the first time that this happened, but it should not end this way. They will replace us by another team because the relationships have been broken; It’s not fair, “Gutierrez added.
“I don’t understand why they use Mexico at the last minute and left Venezuela away.”
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