A team of 15- and 16-year-old baseball players from Venezuela won’t get the chance to compete at a tournament in South Carolina after they were denied visas to enter the United States, according to multiple reports in Latin American media.
The team was hoping to play in the 2025 Little League Senior World Series, which runs from July 26 to August 2 at the J.B. ‘Red’ Owens Sports Complex in Easley, South Carolina, but the denial of the team’s visas leaves no representative from Latin America in the international division, according to the event’s website.
#21Jul | La Liga Pequeña Cacique Mara denunció que el gobierno de Estados Unidos negó el #20Jul la visa a los peloteros venezolanos que representarían a Latinoamérica en el Mundial Senior de Pequeñas Ligas, que se realizará entre el #26Jul y el #2Ago en Carolina del Sur, Estados… pic.twitter.com/iVku52tr9z
— El Diario (@eldiario) July 21, 2025
“Mr. Marco Rubio has denied visas to a group of Venezuelan athletes, averaging 15 years old, who were scheduled to represent Venezuela in a baseball championship, specifically the Little League Senior World Championship, which will take place in the United States in the coming days,” Venezuela’s Deputy Minister of Anti-Blockade Policies, William Castillo, announced on Los Mediodías, a program he hosted on Laiguana.tv, according to a report from UltimasNoticias.com.ve, a Venezuelan news outlet.
Rubio, the U.S. Secretary of State, heads the department of the government in charge of issuing visas and travel documents to both U.S. citizens wanting passports to travel abroad and foreigners seeking entry to the U.S.
“The players are demoralized. All they know how to do is play baseball. They want to compete and honor Venezuela and Latin America. They don’t pose any threat; they’re 15-year-old kids who want to win the World Cup,” said Kendry Gutiérrez, president of the Cacique Mara Little League, the Maracaibo, Zulia-based league that sponsored the team.
According to the report from Ultimas Noticias, the team was in Bogota, Colombia, to obtain visas from the U.S. Embassy there, when they found out their applications were denied. The U.S. and Venezuela do not currently maintain diplomatic relations, forcing the team to travel to apply for visas.
According to a report from Meridiano.Net, another Venezuelan media outlet, “The baseball players were declared ‘ineligible’ under a presidential proclamation restricting the entry of citizens considered threats to national security, and the decision was final, with no possibility of appeal.”
A team from the Coquivacoa Little League in Maracaibo, Venezuela, won the 2024 Little League Senior World Series, which was also contested at the J.B. ‘Red’ Owens Sports Complex in Easley, South Carolina.
The team from Cacique Mara Little League won Venezuela’s championship as well as the Latin American tournament, played in Mexico in February to earn a berth in the event in South Carolina.
Photo: The team from Cacique Mara Little League of Maracaibo, Venezuela, poses after winning the Venezuelan championship. (Photo via @plbvcaciquemara on Instagram)
