The 2025 Senior Baseball World Series should have included a team from Venezuela, but now, the Cacique Mara team that won the Latin American championship will miss the World Series because they were denied visas into the United States.
According to ESPN, the team applied for visas at the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia, but due to the U.S. restrictions on Venezuela, travel is banned from that country to the U.S. When President Trump made that travel ban, he cited national security concerns.
The 2025 Senior Baseball World Series should have included a team from Venezuela, but now, the Cacique Mara team that won the Latin American championship will miss the World Series because they were denied visas into the United States.Â
According to ESPN, the team applied for visas at the U.S. embassy in Bogota, Colombia, but due to the U.S. restrictions on Venezuela, travel is banned from that country to the U.S. When President Trump made that travel ban, he cited national security concerns.
"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," said Kendrick GutiĂ©rrez, the league's president in Venezuela. "It hasn't been easy, the situation. We earned the right to represent Latin America in the world championship."Â
When it became clear that the Venezuelan team would not be able to make the trip to the U.S., Little League International and tournament organizers replaced the team with the Latin American Championship runner-up, Santa Maria de Aguayo from Tamaulipas, Mexico.
“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," said Kendrick Gutiérrez, the league’s Venezuelan president. "I don't understand why they put Mexico in at the last minute and left Venezuela out."
The Venezuelan team released a statement that read, “It is a mockery on the part of Little League to keep us here in Bogota with the hope that our children can fulfill their dreams of participating in a world championship. What do we do with so much injustice, what do we do with the pain that was caused to our children?”
The Senior Baseball World Series is being held in Easley, S.C., and began on Saturday, July 25, 2025. The tournament is specifically for athletes aged 13-16. The series will culminate with the championship game on Aug. 2, 2025.
