Sandy Pérez, a figure connected to Venezuelan youth baseball development, stepped forward Thursday to address something that had been spreading across social media for days: a group of Venezuelan players — reportedly 14 years old — competed in a U-12 tournament. His explanation starts with a fact most people missed entirely.
First, the earthquake. Then, Bogotá.
When a double earthquake — magnitudes 7.2 and 7.5 — struck Venezuela on June 24, 2026, Corporación Criollitos de Venezuela immediately suspended all activities. The disaster was devastating for Venezuelan youth baseball: preliminary reports indicate that around 100 Criollitos players lost their lives as a result of the quake. Traveling to an international tournament in August simply wasn’t on the table.
The 2026 Caribbean Kids Series ran August 10–16 at Estadio Coloso del Pacífico ‘Don Alejo Peralta’ in Tepic, Nayarit, Mexico. Venezuela’s official U-12 team did try to get there — but never made it. Mexican immigration authorities requested a special authorization letter at the last minute that the delegation didn’t have, and the team was left stranded at Bogotá’s El Dorado Airport, bags packed and ready to board. No sanctions, no sporting decision — just paperwork that killed their tournament.
Pérez is clear about the sequence: the official team wasn’t going in the first place because of the earthquake, and then a separate, unofficial group decided to go anyway. That distinction matters, because it shifts who bears institutional responsibility for what happened next.
The group that did show up: 14-year-olds in a U-12 bracket
Pérez’s accusation is direct: the Venezuelan group that actually participated in the U-12 event was made up of players who were 14 years old — two full years above the category limit. The tweet from @wilberdata capturing his statement cuts off before he finishes describing the group, so his complete argument isn’t fully available yet.
What is clear is the charge: someone sent 14-year-olds to compete against kids who were supposed to be 12 and under.
A bigger problem that won’t go away
Age manipulation in Caribbean youth baseball isn’t a new conversation. The 2026 Caribbean Kids Series had already sparked it from a different angle: after the Dominican Republic finished the tournament undefeated at 7-0, with their MVP hitting 6 home runs, Venezuelan fans took to social media to claim the Dominican players were 17 to 19 years old — not 12.
The controversy Pérez is describing isn’t the same situation, but it lives in the same unresolved problem: age verification in Caribbean youth baseball remains a broken system.
- These are two separate controversies — the Dominican Republic allegations arose within the official Caribbean Kids Series; what Pérez describes appears to involve a different or parallel event.
- Pérez’s exact role in Venezuelan baseball’s organizational structure has not been independently confirmed — he appears in official team gear, but his title within Criollitos or FEVEBEISBOL is unverified.
- The specific U-12 tournament Pérez is referring to has not been explicitly confirmed in available sources.
- Who organized or authorized the unofficial Venezuelan group’s participation — and whether they had any institutional backing — remains unknown.
Those are real gaps. But the outline of the story is already there: Venezuela lost roughly a hundred kids to an earthquake, its official team got buried in airport red tape in Colombia, and now someone has to answer for sending 14-year-olds into a bracket built for 12-and-unders.
