World Baseball Classic Win Over U.S. Finally Gives Venezuelans Something to Cheer
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
BOGOTA, Colombia—They were on their feet long before the final out was recorded—beer sloshing, tri-color flags unfurling, voices cracking—and not just for Tuesday night’s baseball victory.
They also celebrated something that felt like a shared national moment.
Venezuela’s national team defeated a powerful U.S. squad in Miami 3-2 in the final of the World Baseball Classic. And for a moment, Venezuelans savored a sense of triumph that cut through the turmoil in their homeland.
“This is historic,” said Pedro Mendoza, a Venezuelan migrant in Bogotá, as he jumped with friends and celebrated his country’s first championship in the tournament. “Doing it on the world stage is an incredible feeling, and against the U.S.? It’s priceless.”
Mendoza was celebrating with other Venezuelans who came together to watch the game on projector screens at an outdoor food court in Bogotá, capital of a country where nearly 3 million Venezuelans who fled economic collapse and the regime’s repression now live.
But the celebrations took place from Santiago, Chile to Miami to Madrid—all cities with large populations of Venezuelans—and back home in Venezuela itself.
“I’m crying,” said Nidia Perez, a grandmother and school janitor who caught the game in a plaza in Caracas. “It was justice. This win felt different.”
Back in Bogotá, Nelida Paez, who had moved to the Colombian capital from western Venezuela to flee economic hardships, said: “You can feel that our luck is finally changing, as a nation.”
Venezuelan baseball fanatics, many dressed in jerseys of their favorite Venezuelan league teams, gathered to watch the game in a food court here run by Venezuelan migrants, chowing down on traditional ballpark foods from home: fried cheese sticks and burgers and hot dogs stacked with sauces.
Venezuelans have been on a roller coaster all year—overjoyed, polling shows, that the Trump administration launched a snatch-and-grab operation that extracted the strongman Nicolás Maduro and his wife, Cilia Flores, from power. They are now jailed in New York, awaiting trial on drug-trafficking charges. They have declared their innocence.
But some Venezuelans have also watched with concern as the U.S. left Maduro’s vice president, Delcy Rodriguez , to run the country under the White House’s auspices as the Trump administration pushes for oil deals. There has been little talk of a transition to democracy, though polling shows that most of Venezuelans want an election this year.
Things have gotten decidedly strange, with President Trump gushing about Rodriguez’s leadership—he has often referred to her as “terrific”—as a long line of high U.S. officials, from cabinet secretaries to the CIA director and the U.S.’s top military commander for the region, parade through Caracas.
With Venezuela having defeated Italy on Monday to make it to the World Baseball Classic final, Trump celebrated on his Truth Social platform, bringing up the possibility of statehood for the oil-rich country.
“Wow! Venezuela defeated Italy tonight, 4-2, in the WBC (Baseball!) Semifinal,” he wrote. “They are looking great. Good things are happening to Venezuela lately! I wonder what this magic is all about? STATEHOOD, #51, ANYONE?”
After the Venezuela victory on Tuesday, Trump posted, “STATEHOOD!!! President DJT.”
And late on Tuesday, Rodriguez posted a message to the team: “I want in the name of our people, of the government of Venezuela, to thank and hug our players.”
She declared that Wednesday would be a holiday for everyone except essential workers, “so our youth can go out to the streets, the plazas, the parks and ballfields to celebrate.”
Halfway through the game, police in Bogotá responded to noise complaints from residents in the apartments around the food court and ordered the operators to turn off the screens they had mounted.
“We’re not leaving,” the Venezuelans chanted, as they quickly turned to the live action on their phones and laptops.
“They don’t know what they’re messing with,” Jacobo Romero, who had joined to watch the game with his family, quipped. “You don’t get between a Venezuelan and his baseball.”
Fernando Marquez, a 26-year-old Venezuelan who works for a logistics company in Colombia, and other stragglers huddled over a laptop to watch the last inning.
The game then ended in an unforgettable fashion for Venezuelans—a ninth-inning hit that gave their team a 3-2 lead and then pitching by Daniel Palencia that sealed the game, striking out the last American batter.
“This is so much happiness in the middle of a moment of a lot of difficulty,” said Marquez, who has lived in Colombia for seven years. “Baseball is our top sport, and it feels like we’re starting the year on a good note. I hope this is only the beginning of a lot of good things coming our way.”
Tags
Who is online
88 visitors
After the Venezuela victory on Tuesday, Trump posted, “STATEHOOD!!! President DJT.”
Brilliant idea Donald, add their 28.5 million to the USA's 68 million and, oh what the Hell, Cuba's 10.5 million latinos and change the name to the Gulf of Latinx.
Hay días tontos y tontos todos los días!
what the fuck is wrong with that man?
I'm happy for them. I hope they see free and fair elections some time soon but with trmp's puppet in place it's looking doubtful.
Donald may loan them the infamous Ninja Vote Counters.
A little Venezualan vengence maybe?