Venezuelan Little League Baseball Team Denied Entry Into U.S.

A Little League baseball team from Venezuela was denied visas to travel to the U.S. for a major tournament.

The Cacique Mara Little League team was unable to obtain the appropriate visas required to enter the country for the Senior League Baseball World Series, which is being played just outside Greenville, S.C. this week. The tournament is for teams with players aged 13–16, one level up from the more well-known Little League World Series, which includes players aged 10–12, and begins Aug. 17.

Little League International called the situation “extremely disappointing” in a statement. The team told the AP that it traveled to Colombia two weeks ago to apply for visas at the U.S. embassy in Bogotá. “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,” the team said in a statement. “What do we do with so much injustice, what do we do with the pain that was caused to our children?”

Cacique Mara was replaced by the Santa María de Aguayo team from Mexico, which lost the Latin American championship game. 

A senior State Department official told the Washington Post on Saturday that officials were “working to review the case to confirm proper procedures were followed and necessary appeals were submitted by the visa applicants.”

Venezuela is one of 12 countries that received a full suspension of entry by U.S. President Donald Trump’s travel ban in June. The ban is not expected to impact professional leagues with large international player pools like MLB and the NBA.