The Caribbean Series was moved from Caracas, Venezuela, to the Guadalajara, Mexico, metropolitan area last week. Could the Serie de Las Americas be the next winter ball tournament to be transplanted weeks before it starts?
The Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional has extended an invitation to the Serie de Las Americas to hold the postseason event, currently scheduled to be held at Estadio Mariano Rivera in La Chorrera, Panama, and Estadio Juan Demostenes Arosamena in Panama City, to relocate the event to Caracas and La Guaira, Venezuela and play it on the same dates as the Caribbean Series, according to a report from Argentine journalist Wilmer Castellano.
La LVBP hizo una invitación a los miembros de la Serie de las Américas para jugar el torneo en Caracas en la misma fecha que estaba planificada la Serie del Caribe. Torneo formado por los campeones de Colombia, Curacao, Nicaragua y Argentina. Panamá y Cuba irían con selección.
— Wilmer Castellano (@WilCastellano) December 21, 2025
The offer, which was also reported by Venezuelan media outlet Meridiano.net, puts the LVBP in direct competition with the Confederacion de Beisbol Profesional del Caribe, the organization that runs the Caribbean Series each year, of which it is a member.
Currently, the Serie de Las Americas is scheduled to be played in Panama from Jan. 24-30, 2026, with the champions of professional leagues in Argentina, Curacao, Panama, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Colombia. The champion of Cuba’s Serie Nacional had originally been invited to the Caribbean Series when it was planned to be played in Caracas, but Cuba was ultimately not invited to the Caribbean Series when it moved to Mexico.
Reached via WhatsApp, the president of Panama’s ProBeis league, David Salayandia, told World Baseball Network in Spanish that nothing regarding the Serie de Las Americas had changed yet.
The Caribbean Series was moved out of Caracas and La Guaira, Venezuela, after the Dominican Republic’s LIDOM, Puerto Rico’s LBPRC, and Mexico’s Liga ARCO Mexicana del Pacifico told the CBPC that they would not send representatives to the Caribbean Series if it were to stay in Caracas, citing the difficulty of traveling to Venezuela at the moment amid the rising military tension between Venezuela and the United States.
“The fact that the tournament is scheduled for the same dates as the Caribbean Series in Mexico is no coincidence,” a report in Meridiano.net said. “The LVBP seeks to demonstrate that Venezuela possesses the infrastructure and organizational capacity to host high-impact international events, regardless of the CBPC’s decisions.”
For the second time in the last decade, a Caribbean Series has been moved out of Venezuela to Estadio Panamericano in Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico, the home of the LAMP’s Charros de Jalisco in metropolitan Guadalajara. In 2017, amid a worsening economic and political crisis in Venezuela, the CBPC moved the 2018 Caribbean Series from Barquisimeto, Venezuela, to Estadio Panamericano.
Panama’s ProBeis League Still Trying to Play Season – Panama’s ProBeis league, the country’s top professional league, is still trying to play a short season in January, which would allow the loop to determine a champion to send to both the Serie de Las Americas and the Caribbean Series.
Reached via WhatsApp, ProBeis president David Salayandia told World Baseball Network Tuesday morning that the league is still looking to play a season.
“It’s possible. It’s possible,” Salayandia said in Spanish. “The thing is, we’re making an effort to see if we can make [the ProBeis season] short, but it’s complicated.”
Last week, Salayandia told Panama America, an online news outlet, that ProBeis hadn’t yet received confirmation whether PanDeportes, the country’s ministry of sports, would support the league.
“In my opinion, if we don’t go to the Caribbean Series, the Americas Series, and the League doesn’t happen , that will bury Probeis. I hope it doesn’t happen,” Salayandia told Panama America. Panama had previously confirmed it would send a team to the 2026 Caribbean Series and host the 2026 Serie de las Americas.
If the ProBeis league doesn’t play a season, it would complicate efforts to put a team together to represent Panama in the Serie de Las Americas and the Caribbean Series.
“What team will we field if I don’t have a league?” Salayandía asked rhetorically in Panama America’s article. “This is the part that the Pandeportes directors don’t seem to understand; without this contribution, we wouldn’t be able to participate in the Caribbean Series or the Americas Series.”
Photo: The Liga Venezolana de Beisbol Profesional has proposed moving the 2026 Serie de Las Americas to Venezuela after the CBPC pulled the 2026 Caribbean Series out of the country. (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix)
