One of Little League’s international tournaments will be played without its planned field.
The Cacique Mara team from Maracaibo, Venezuela was denied visas into the United States and will be forced to missed the Senior League World Series for players between 13 and 16 years old, Little League confirmed in a statement to South Carolina’s WSPA. A team from Victoria, Mexico will reportedly take their place as the tournament’s Latin American team in Easley, South Carolina.
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The full statement:
“Little League® International has been notified that 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 in Easley, South Carolina. While this is extremely disappointing, especially to these young athletes, the Little League International Tournament Committee has made the decision to advance the second place team, Santa Maria de Aguayo Little League (Victoria, Mexico), to participate in the Senior League Baseball World Series and ensure the Latin America Region is represented in the tournament and that the players, coaches, and families from Mexico are able to have a memorable World Series experience.”
The Senior League World Series is held each year in Easley with six teams from the United States and six American teams. A different team from Maracaibo won the tournament last year.
The Venezuelan team was reportedly deemed ineligible for visas due to a June executive order from President Donald Trump which limits entry into the U.S. from certain countries. Venezuela is one of the countries that currently faces a limited ban.
The Venezuelan team, which was attempting to procure its visas in Bogota, Colombia, posted its own statement on Instagram calling the decision a “mockery” via a machine translation. Team Venzuela beat the Mexican team it’s being replaced by in the Latin American regional tournament last month.
The president of the team had his own reaction, as translated by World Baseball:
“The players are demoralized. All they know how to do is play baseball. They want to compete and honor Venezuela and Latin America. They don’t pose any threat; they’re 15-year-old kids who want to win the World Cup,” said Kendry Gutiérrez, president of the Cacique Mara Little League, the Maracaibo, Zulia-based league that sponsored the team.
While the Senior League World Series is not a high-profile tournament, an international team being denied entry into the U.S. will be cause for concern for some given how many international sporting events the country is set to host over the next three years, headlined by the FIFA World Cup in 2026 and the Summer Olympics in 2028.
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Trump’s executive order does specifically grant exceptions to “any athlete or member of an athletic team, including coaches, persons performing a necessary support role, and immediate relatives, traveling for the World Cup, Olympics, or other major sporting event as determined by the Secretary of State.” However, that leaves room for uncertainty on what constitutes a “major” sporting event, turning Secretary of State Marco Rubio into a significant athletic authority.
Earlier this month, a Cuban women’s volleyball team was denied visas into Puerto Rico under similar circumstances.