LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. – They are working with the rest of the Braves to prepare for a baseball season that begins in five weeks, but Venezuelans on the team are also worried about family and friends in their troubled homeland.
At least eight deaths and more than 100 injuries have been linked to civil unrest and political violence in the past two weeks in Venezuela, where thousands of students and others are protesting in city streets against the oppressive government of President Nicolas Maduro.
“It’s really bad there right now,” said Venezula relief pitcher Luis Avilan, who has stayed in contact with his mother, brother and girlfriend in his hometown of Barquisimoto, and his father who works in Caracas, the capital city, where hundreds of thousands protested in the streets during the weekend.
“Every day we talk. My friends go to the streets to protest the government,” Avilan said. “I tell them to try to stay safe, don’t do anything crazy, don’t try to do too much.”
Avilan and 11 other members of the Braves organization showed support for the protesters by posing for a photo Sunday while holding hand-made signs that featured the Venezuela flag and messages of support for the protesters, urging them and other Venezuelan citizens to “stay strong.”
“That’s the least we can do for all the students who are fighting every day against the government,” said Braves bullpen coach Eddie Perez, a Venezuelan. “They’re shooting them, they’re killing them. They (protesters) are fighting for our freedom, and we’re here doing our jobs thinking about them.
“That’s the least we can do for them, show them support from here, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Perez said his wife and children participated with hundreds of Venezuelans and others in a rally Saturday in Atlanta to show solidarity with the protesters. Perez’s mother and brothers live in Maracaibo in northwestern Venezuela.
“Everywhere is bad, but in (Maracaibo), thank God it’s peaceful,” he said. “Most of the people there are against the government, so there’s not too many bad people. So the police let them (protest) in my city. But in other cities it’s bad…. The students are tired of it. They’re fighting back. Everybody is supporting them.”
Several others Braves who posed for the photo were Venezuelan, including veteran pitcher Freddy Garcia, Triple-A first baseman Ernesto Mejia, and Class-A Lynchburg manager Luis Salazar. Others were Latin American players including Colombian pitcher Julio Teheran and Panamanian catching prospect Christian Bethancourt.
The only non-Latino was Evan Gattis, who played winter ball in Venezuela after the 2012 season, and developed an affinity for the country and its people. He’s read and talked to Venezuelans about the country’s combustible political history, including Maduro’s power predecessor, the late Hugo Chavez, a leftist icon.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” Gattis said. “Chavez, basically, from my understanding, became a dictator and kind of controlled all the money. And you couldn’t say anything against the government. I just know it’s bad. And then he died, and someone took over who’s even worse, so it’s pretty much the same thing.
“People can’t say anything about it, and I don’t think they have (independent) news (organizations) like we do. It’s bad. It’s a good country — good people, bad government, man.”
