After a team of talented teenage baseball players from Venezuela swept through a qualifying tournament in Mexico last month, it seemed they were bound for the Senior League World Series in the United States, ready to take on some of the world’s best youth ball clubs.
But when the championship round begins in Easley, S.C., on Saturday, the undefeated squad from Venezuela will not be there. The team, Cacique Mara, has been denied the visas necessary to attend, Little League Baseball International said Friday.
A team from Mexico will take its place.
The Senior League World Series invites 12 teams of players ages 13 to 16 — older than those in the higher-profile Little League World Series, which is for ages 10 to 12 and is a staple of ESPN’s daytime summer programming.
Cacique Mara said it learned a week ago that the visas had been denied. Its players, raised in one of the world’s most unstable countries, are demoralized, the team’s president said.
The State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment Friday evening, but it appeared that Cacique Mara had been swept up in the severe travel restrictions that President Trump has placed on more than a dozen countries. The administration allows exceptions for athletes and coaches traveling for major athletic competitions such as the World Cup and the Olympics.
Cacique Mara said on social media that players and coaches from the team sat for interviews on July 14 to try to secure visas, but were denied by an immigration officer.
The White House referred inquiries to the State Department, which did not respond to requests for comment.
Since returning to office, Mr. Trump has imposed travel bans on at least 12 countries, while restricting visas for citizens from another seven countries, including Venezuela, which is gripped by poverty, hyperinflation, political instability, violent crime and an authoritarian government.
In some cases, the Trump administration has deported Venezuelans in the United States without court hearings. It has claimed that a Venezuelan street gang is trying to invade the country. The president has claimed the gang is committing crimes in the United States at the direction of Venezuela’s government, an assertion contradicted by American intelligence agencies.
Venezuela has long been a baseball hotbed. Some of the most dazzling stars in Major League Baseball in recent years — Miguel Cabrera, Johan Santana and Jose Altuve among them — grew up in Venezuela. Teams from the country have won the Senior League World Series three times.
To qualify for the Senior League World Series, which is run by the same organization that hosts the Little League World Series in Williamsport, Pa., Cacique Mara dominated the Latin America Region Tournament, played in Ciudad Victoria, Mexico, over five days in mid-June.
The team won all five games in the regional, beating its opponents by 45 runs in total.
Little League International said in a statement that it was “extremely” disappointed that Cacique Mara had not been able to secure the necessary visas. Santa Maria de Aguayo, a team from Victoria, Mexico, will represent the Latin America region instead. The team won three games and lost one during the regional round.
In an interview that Cacique Mara posted on social media, Kendry Gutiérrez, the team’s president, said the situation was a crushing blow for his players.
“The situation has not been easy for the team to go through,” he said. “This team has been working for many years. Since they were little.”
He added, “They simply want the opportunity to go play.”
Axel Boada contributed reporting.
The post Venezuelan Youth Baseball Team, Denied Visas, Is Left Out of Tournament in U.S. appeared first on New York Times.
