Amid rising tensions in the southern Caribbean, the Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe has remained steadfast that the 2026 Caribbean Series would be played in Caracas and La Guaira, Venezuela in late January and early February.
Now, however, the CBPC, the organization that oversees winter baseball’s biggest event, could decide on Monday, Dec. 1, whether or not to keep the event in Venezuela or move it elsewhere, potentially to Panama, according to a report from ESPN Deportes’ Enrique Rojas.
Lunes 1 de diciembre será fecha clave para conocer futuro inmediato de próxima Serie del Caribe, programada (hasta ahora) para celebrarse en Caracas, Venezuela, en febrero.
En la mesa: Ratificarla en Caracas o moverla a ¿Ciudad Panamá?
Amanecerá y veremos.— Enrique Rojas/ESPN (@Enrique_Rojas1) November 26, 2025
The Caribbean Series pits the champions of Caribbean baseball’s four major winter leagues — the Dominican Republic’s LIDOM, Venezuela’s Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, Puerto Rico’s LBPRC, and Mexico’s Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico — against each other in a tournament every winter. Teams from other leagues and countries are often invited to join the champions of the four CBPC leagues at the event.
For the second time in four years, the CBPC has planned for the event to be played at Estadio Monumental Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela’s capital, and Estadio Jorge Luis García Carneiro in La Guaira, a nearby port city, with teams from the four CBPC member leagues as well as invitees from Panama and Cuba. Both ballparks hosted games during the 2023 Caribbean Series, when four invitees — teams from Cuba, Panama, Curacao, and Colombia — joined the champions of the four CBPC leagues, marking the first time that eight teams played in the Caribbean Series.
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But rising tensions between the United States and Venezuela over alleged drug trafficking, as well as rising tensions between Venezuela and other Latin American countries that viewed the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, which resulted in President Nicolas Maduro winning another six-year term, as illegitimate have increased the difficulty of holding the event in Venezuela.
Since the Caribbean Series was restarted in 1970, it has been held at a non-CBPC venue four times; three times in Miami in 1990, 1991, and 2024, and once in Panama City in 2019. In 2018, the event was moved from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, to Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, with Barquisimeto being awarded the 2019 Caribbean Series. The 2019 Caribbean Series was moved from Barquisimeto to Panama City’s Estadio Rod Carew on Jan. 27, 2019, days before the series was to begin, marking the second consecutive year the event was moved from Venezuela to another venue due to the socioeconomic problems that have gripped the country for more than a decade.
At the time the CBPC voted to move the 2019 Caribbean Series, the body cited the lack of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Venezuela, a recommendation by Major League Baseball for personnel not to travel to nor stay in Venezuela, and ongoing political tension in the country as the reasons for the move.
Currently, the United States, of which Puerto Rico is a territory, does not have diplomatic relations with Venezuela, nor are their currently diplomatic relations between the Dominican Republic and Venezuela. In recent months, the United States has conducted more than 20 strikes against boats off the Venezuelan coast, alleging that the vessels were trafficking drugs to the U.S., though no evidence supporting those claims has been provided. The U.S. government has also designated the Cartel de Los Soles, a drug trafficking organization of which Maduro is allegedly the leader, as a terrorist organization.
Relations between the two Caribbean countries soured in the wake of the Dominican government’s pronouncement that the 2024 Venezuelan election was illegitimate, as well as the seizure of a Dassault Falcon 2000EX jet owned by Venezuela’s state oil and gas company by the United States while the plane was in the Dominican Republic for repairs.
Several sources with deep connections in Latin baseball have told World Baseball Network that they would prefer the series be moved out of Venezuela, as they do not feel safe traveling there.
Whether Venezuela would issue visas for athletes, staff, and journalists with U.S. or Dominican citizenship to enter the country for the Caribbean Series remains an open question, especially as the United States denied a Venezuelan Little League team visas to play a tournament in South Carolina.
In recent months, Venezuela was named as a host for group play during the 2025 Copa America de Beisbol, only for the whole event to be moved to Panama. A report in the Santo Domingo, D.R.-based DiarioLibre stated the Dominican Republic’s government advised their national team that due to the lack of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the government would be unable to provide assistance to the athletes while they were in Venezuela. The Copa America ended up being postponed to 2026 five days before it was to begin due to myriad problems.
Should the 2026 Caribbean Series be moved out of Caracas, it would be the second time the 2026 edition of the event has been relocated. In 2024, the CBPC announced the event would not be played at Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and would instead move to Caracas after Estadio Hiram Bithorn was named a host for pool play during the 2026 World Baseball Classic, which will be played starting March 5, 2026.
Tensions between the U.S., the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela make Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic unlikely pinch hitters should the event move out of Venezuela. Mexico, which has maintained diplomacy with Venezuela in recent years, could potentially host the event.
Panama was specifically cited by ESPN’s Enrique Rojas as a potential landing spot for the Caribbean Series, though Panama City’s biggest ballpark, Estadio Rod Carew, is closed for emergency repairs for at least six months. The closing of Estadio Rod Carew has forced the Serie de Las Americas, a parallel series to the Caribbean Series that will feature teams from Argentina, Colombia, Cuba, Curacao, Nicaragua, and Panama, to be played at Estadio Mariano Rivera in La Chorrera, Panama, as well as at Estadio Juan Demostenes Arosemena in Panama City.
Photo: Estadio Monumental Simon Bolivar in Caracas, Venezuela, is supposed to host the 2026 Caribbean Series, though rumors persist that the event could be moved out of the country. (Photo courtesy WBSC)
