A Venezuelan youth baseball team has reportedly been denied visas into the United States and will therefore miss this year’s Senior Baseball World Series.
According to AP News, the Cacique Mara team, which hails from Maracaibo, Venezuela, was supposed to participate in the tournament after winning the Latin American championship in Mexico.
The Senior League Baseball World Series is a tournament for players aged 13-16, and is played each year in Easley, South Carolina.
It began on Saturday (26 July) and the team had travelled to Colombia two weeks ago so they could apply for their visas at the US embassy in Bogotá.
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However, they were ‘unable to obtain the appropriate visas’.
Venezuela is on the list of countries that currently face restrictions when entering the US or its territories.
It comes after Donald Trump completely banned travel from 12 countries, citing national security concerns and protecting the US against ‘foreign terrorists’ as his reasoning.
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Meanwhile, a further seven - such as Cuba and Laos, and including Venezuela - are facing restrictions.
Little League International said in a statement to AP News: “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.”
They added that the news is ‘extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes’.
Meanwhile, the sports team itself said in a statement: “It is a mockery on the part of Little League to keep us here in Bogotá with the hope that our children can fulfill their dreams of participating in a world championship.”
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They added: “What do we do with so much injustice, what do we do with the pain that was caused to our children?”
The tournament organisers replaced the Venezuelan team with the Santa Maria de Aguayo team from Tamaulipas, Mexico - they finished as runners-up in the Latin American championship.
Kendrick Gutiérrez, the league’s president in Venezuela, also expressed his disappointment and told the publication that ‘relations have been severed’.
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He said: “It hasn’t been easy, the situation; we earned the right to represent Latin America in the World Championship.
“I think this is the first time this has happened, but it shouldn’t end this way. They’re going to replace us with another team because relations have been severed; it’s not fair.”
Gutiérrez added: “I don’t understand why they put Mexico in at the last minute and left Venezuela out.”
The 12 countries which have been issued full travel bans are:
- Afghanistan
- Burma
- Chad
- The Republic of the Congo
- Equatorial Guinea
- Eritrea
- Haiti
- Iran
- Libya
- Somalia
- Sudan
- Yemen
This means that under no circumstances can they enter the US.
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The seven countries which have heightened restrictions on visitors are:
- Burundi
- Cuba
- Laos
- Sierra Leone
- Togo
- Turkmenistan
- Venezuela
The partial restrictions mean that citizens from these countries are not able to travel to the US with certain visas.
The rules also remove access to all immigrant visas and several non-immigrant travel options. However, diplomats can travel to the US from those countries.
Tyla has contacted the US embassy in Bogotá for comment.
Topics: Donald Trump, World News, US News, Travel, Sport
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Madison Burgess