And then there were none.
No high-level baseball tournaments in Panama, that is.
Just a month and a half after the 2025 Copa America, scheduled to be played at Estadio Mariano Rivera in La Chorrera, Panama, was abruptly cancelled just eight days before it was to begin, the 2026 Serie de Las Americas, which was planned to be held in La Chorrera and Panama City, has been moved to Caracas and La Guaira, Venezuela, according to a report from El Extrabase. The tournament will now be played from Feb. 1-7, 2026, pitting it directly against the Caribbean Series for viewership in Latin America.
The Serie de Las America’s move to Venezuela comes just a week after the Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe moved the 2026 Caribbean Series out of Venezuela to Mexico, citing the effects of rising military tensions between the United States and Venezuela on the event.
Organized by the Asociation de Ligas Profesionales de Beisbol de Las Americas, the Serie de Las Americas is expected to include the champions of leagues in Argentina, Curacao, Colombia, and Nicaragua, with Cuba, Panama, and Brazil sending their respective national teams. Venezuela will also have a team in the event, but it will not be a team associated with the country’s winter league, the Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, nor will it have players on Major League Baseball contracts, as the Serie de Las Americas is not a competition approved in the Winter League Agreement.
Panama’s Aguilas Metropolitanas won the inaugural Serie de Las Americas in 2025, when it was played at three stadiums in Nicaragua, but it remains to be determined how Panama will participate in both the 2026 Serie de Las Americas and the Caribbean Series.
A founding member of ABAM, Panama had planned to play in both events when the Serie de Las Americas was scheduled for Jan. 24-30, 2026, but now finds itself potentially needing to send teams to two simultaneous events.
Cuba, which is also a founding member of ABAM, had been invited by the LVBP to play in the 2026 Caribbean Series in Venezuela, but Mexico’s Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico, which took over the event’s organization when it was moved to Guadalajara, did not invite Cuba to send a team.
Photo: Estadio La Rinconada iN Caracas, Venezuela will open February 2 with the start of the 2023 Caribbean Series.
