The 2026 edition of winter baseball’s biggest event, the Caribbean Series, will remain in Venezuela, despite the ongoing economic crisis in the South American nation and rising military tensions between Venezuela and the United States.
The series, for which six of eight participants have been announced, will remain in Caracas and La Guaira, Venezuela, Diamante23 reported in a post on Instagram, citing unnamed sources. Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, and La Guaira, a nearby city on the coast, co-hosted the 2023 Caribbean Series, the first in which eight teams participated.
So far, the four member leagues of the Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe, the Dominican Republic’s LIDOM, Puerto Rico’s LBPRC, Venezuela’s Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional, and Mexico’s Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico, are confirmed to be participating, along with the champions of Cuba’s Serie Nacional and Colombia’s Liga Beisbol Profesional Colombiano. It is expected that teams representing two more countries will be invited. Previous invitees have included teams representing Curacao and Japan, as well as champions from Panama’s ProBeis league and Nicaragua’s Liga Beisbol Profesional Nacional.
Reached on the messaging app WhatsApp, Erick Almonte, the president of the union that represents players in LIDOM, directed questions about the status of the series to the CBPC. Messages requesting comment from the CBPC and LBPRC players’ union head Yamil Benitez about whether the CPBC is considering relocating the Caribbean Series have yet to be answered.
Originally scheduled to be hosted by Puerto Rico, the series site was changed to Venezuela in 2024 when Estadio Hiram Bithorn in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was named a host venue for Pool Play in the 2026 World Baseball Classic.
ESPN’s Enrique Rojas reported during the 2025 Caribbean Series in February that the CBPC was considering moving the series out of Caracas due to the diplomatic situation.
The report that the Caribbean Series will stay in Caracas comes as tensions have risen between the U.S. government and that of Venezuela in recent months and years.
During the first administration led by U.S. President Donald J. Trump, diplomatic relations between the two countries broke down following the 2019 Venezuelan presidential election, in which Nicolas Maduro claimed victory but the U.S. recognized opposition leader Juan Guaido as the winner. Shortly after that election, the U.S. removed all personnel from its embassy in Caracas.
More recently, shortly after Trump took office for a second term in January 2025, tensions have risen as the U.S. government has deported hundreds of Venezuelan citizens from the country, claiming they are members of Tren de Aragua, a criminal gang based in Venezuela’s Aragua state. With Maduro under federal indictment in the U.S. since 2020 on charges that he leads the Cartel des Soles drug trafficking organization, the U.S. raised the reward for Maduro’s capture to $50 million and declared the Cartel des Soles a Specially Designated Global Terrorist Organization in July.
In August, the U.S. moved multiple warships to the southern Caribbean, and have since sunk two Venezuelan vessels, with Trump alleging they were moving drugs, including cocaine and fentanyl, towards the U.S., though the U.S. government has not produced any evidence.
Venezuela’s relations with other countries in the CBPC have also been strained following the 2024 Venezuelan presidential election, in which Maduro claimed victory again over opposition candidate Edmundo Gonzalez, despite allegations that Maduro used his control of the country’s election infrastructure to falsify the results. In the wake of the election, in which the Dominican government sided with the opposition, Venezuela expelled diplomats from the Dominican Republic, and other disputes, including the seizure of a Venezuelan plane in the D.R. as well as a disputed debt over oil owed by the Dominican government, have further soured relations.
Because of the diplomatic situation, there had been speculation, including some from baseball journalists in Venezuela, that the 2026 Caribbean Series could potentially move out of Caracas.
Dada la tensión entre Estados Unidos y Venezuela, me pregunto si la oficina del Comisionado de la Confederación de Béisbol Profesional del Caribe, estará pensando llamar al 1-800-MARLINS.
— Fernando Álvarez (@FerAlvarez) September 17, 2025
Were the series to move out of Caracas, Miami’s loanDepot Park, home of the Miami Marlins of Major League Baseball, would be a potential host, as veteran Latin American baseball journalist Fernando Alvarez noted in a post on social media site X.com. The ballpark, the first MLB venue to host a Caribbean Series, drew record crowds when it hosted the 2024 Caribbean Series, which was won by the Tiburones de La Guaira of the LVBP.
However, the escalating tension between the U.S. and Venezuela, as well as rising tensions with Cuba during Trump’s second term, would make Miami a difficult option, as the U.S. could potentially deny visas to players, staff, and journalists from Cuba and Venezuela to enter the country. Because Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory, relocating the series to a ballpark there would potentially create the same problems with travel documents.
A winter ball preseason event planned to be held in Caracas last October, the Hexagonal Monumental, was postponed by the LVBP in late September 2024 “due to logistical issues with participating teams.” The event was scheduled to include the Tigres del Licey of LIDOM and the Cangrejeros de Santurce of the LVBP, as well as the Japan Breeze. Though the league said the event would be rescheduled, it never was.
The CBPC has previously moved a Caribbean Series to a different country and venue. The 2018 and 2019 Caribbean Series were originally scheduled to be played in Barquisimeto, Venezuela, but were ultimately moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, and Panama City, Panama, respectively.
Photo: Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, left, and his wife, Cilia Flores, wave to fans at Venezuela’s first game at La Rinconada in the 2023 Caribbean Series. (Photo: Getty Images)
