CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) – For years, Venezuela’s baseball stadiums served as a sporting sanctuary where fans of all classes and political backgrounds set aside their differences to watch some of the nation’s top major league players and forget about their mounting hardships.
But now, as the country’s crisis deepens to unprecedented levels, some are beginning to wonder whether it’s time to at least temporarily hang up the national pastime.
It’s not going to happen.
Vice President Tareck El Aissami put an end to weeks of speculation by announcing Tuesday that the government had taken almost $10 million from the nation’s fast-depleting foreign currency reserves to subsidize the winter league and help teams import foreign players that have been a staple since Pete Rose played for the Caracas Lions in the 1960s.
“The baseball season is guaranteed,” said El Aissami, who added that he was acting on direct orders from President Nicolas Maduro to provide the league with the same level of funding it received last year. “Let it be a high quality spectacle.”