Opinion: A little league heartbreak

The Senior League World Series championship, for Little Leaguers ages 13 to 16 from all over the world, is played today in Easly, South Carolina. But the Cacique Mara team from Maracaibo, Venezuela couldn’t compete. They won the Latin American qualifier rounds in Mexico last month, but were denied travel visas to the United States.

President Trump signed a proclamation in June to ban or partly ban citizens from 19 countries including Afghanistan, Cuba, Iran, and Venezuela from entering the U.S. for national security concerns. But there were exemptions for athletes participating in the World Cup, the Olympics, or other major sporting events as determined by the secretary of state.

It is not clear why an immigration officer denied travel visas to this team of Venezuelan youngsters. A State Department spokesperson told us, they have “a policy to grant national interest exceptions to qualified travelers participating in these types of sporting events on a case-by-case basis. Due to the additional processing time required, we recommend that applicants apply well in advance of their anticipated travel date.”

Of course, a baseball team playing in a championship tournament can’t apply for a visa until they’ve won a spot in that tournament.

Kendry Gutiérrez, president of the Cacique Mara Little League, said in a statement that his players are “…demoralized. All they know how to do is play baseball. They don’t represent any threat; they are 15-year-old kids who want to win the World Cup.”

Not allowing this group of young athletes to come to the U.S. for a major sporting event raises some questions:

Will Iran’s excellent national soccer team really be permitted to play 2026 World Cup soccer games in the US? Will athletes from Iran, Cuba, Venezuela and other listed countries really be given visas to compete at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles?

Two other Little League teams from Venezuela, one from Valencia, another from Barquisimeto, were granted visas.

International sports competitions are often saluted for promoting respect across all boundaries. And so the decision not to give visas to these teenagers from Cacique Mara is hard to understand.

What you see is a group of youngsters from Venezuela who’ve been denied the chance to come to America to play their hearts out in a game they love.