It appeared like a group of gifted adolescent baseball players from Venezuela were headed to the Senior League World Series in the United States, where they would face some of the top youth ball teams in the world, after they won a qualifying event in Mexico last month.
However, the unbeaten Venezuelan team will not be there when the final round starts on Saturday in Easley, South Carolina. Little League Baseball International said on Friday that the team, Cacique Mara, had been refused the visas required to attend.
It will be replaced by a Mexican team.
In contrast to the more well-known Little League World Series, which is for players aged 10 to 12 and is a mainstay of ESPN’s daytime summer programming, the Senior League World Series welcomes 12 teams of kids who are 13 to 16 years old.
According to Cacique Mara, it found out about the visas’ denial a week ago. The team’s president claimed that its players, who grew up in one of the most unstable nations on earth, are disheartened.
Cacique Mara seemed to have been caught up in the harsh travel restrictions imposed by President Trump on over a dozen nations. For athletes and coaches attending big athletic events like the Olympics and World Cup, the administration permits exceptions.
On social media, Cacique Mara stated that the team’s coaches and players had interviews on July 14 in an attempt to obtain visas, but an immigration official had rejected their requests.
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