The Trump administration has declined to issue visas to a champion teenage Venezuelan youth baseball team to play in the upcoming Senior League World Series in the U.S.
The team, Cacique Mara of Maracaibo, Venezuela, said they traveled to Colombia two weeks ago to apply for U.S. visas for the tournament, but were rejected under the Trump administration’s June travel ban.
“The players are demoralized,” Cacique Mara wrote in a statement in Spanish on social media earlier this week. “The only thing that they know is baseball. They want to go to compete and put the name Venezuela and Latin American on high. They don’t represent any threat, they are 15-year-olds that want to win the world series.”
Little League International, which organizes the weeklong teen tournament in South Carolina, said in a statement the denial was “extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes.”
“Our consular officers are currently working to review the case to confirm proper procedures were followed and necessary appeals were submitted by the visa applicants,” a State Department official told The Independent.
In June, the administration announced travel bans on 12 countries, as well as partial limits on another seven nations, including Venezuela, citing the need to protect Americans from “foreign terrorists” and other national security threats. The restrictions have exceptions, including for athletes traveling to major tournaments.
“They told us that Venezuela is on a list because Trump says Venezuelans are a threat to the security of his state, of his country,” Kendrick Gutiérrez, president of the Venezuela Little League organization, told ESPN. “It hasn’t been easy, the situation. We earned the right to represent Latin America in the world championship.”
The White House has repeatedly butted heads with Venezuela.
The Trump administration has contradicted its own intelligence community and accused Venezuela of collaborating with the Tren de Aragua gang, whom the U.S. considers a terrorist group.
Venezuela also temporarily declined to accept repatriation flights from the U.S., and sharply criticized U.S. officials for the summary deportation of hundreds of Venezuelans to a notorious prison in El Salvador on gang allegations. The men have since returned to Venezuela in a prisoner swap with the U.S.
Cacique Mara clinched a spot in the tournament in Easley last month, winning all five of its games in the Latin American Little League Championship in Mexico.
They will now be replaced with the No. 2 team from that tournament, Santa Maria de Aguayo, from Victoria, Mexico.
The 12-team Senior League World Series, for players aged 13 to 16, begins Saturday and runs through August.
Venezuelan teams have won the games three times, most recently in 2006.
