Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos has been kidnapped in his native Venezuela, according to the Twitter feed of his club team, Tigres de Aragua and confirmed by multiple sources over the last 14 hours.
Ramos, 24, was expected to return home this month to play in the Venezuelan League of Professional Baseball. According to multiple Spanish-language reports, Ramos was kidnapped near his family’s home in Santa Inés, a neighborhood in the city of Valencia, Carabobo state, Venezuela.
According to the publication El Periodiquito, four men allegedly arrived at the home of Ramos’ mother, Maria Campos, on Wednesday afternoon and ushered Ramos into a waiting vehicle before departing. According to a source close to Ramos’ family, there was still no word as of 6 a.m. from Ramos or the kidnappers. The source claims there were actually three armed men who pulled in front of the house as Ramos stood chatting with his father, Abraham Ramos, and several cousins. The Nationals have yet to confirm the abduction.
The United States Department of State writes on its official web site that “violent crime in Venezuela is pervasive, both in the capital, Caracas, and in the interior. The country’s overall per capita murder rate is cited as one of the top five in the world. The Venezuelan National Counter Kidnapping Commission was created in 2006, and since then, official statistics have shown alarming increases in reported kidnappings throughout the country. In fact, kidnappings in 2009 increased anywhere from 40-60 percent from the previous year. Surveys show that the overwhelming majority of kidnappings and other major crimes are not reported to the police.” Time Magazine wrote a piece on the phenomenon in its Dec. 29, 2009 issue.
Ramos played in 113 games for the Nats this past season with 15 home runs – a club record for a catcher – and 52 RBI. It was a promising start in his first full major-league season. Ramos was acquired in a trade with the Minnesota Twins on July 29, 2010.
Ramos told the Examiner in a story written last month that he planned to take several weeks off after the Major League Baseball season concluded in late September and hoped to arrive in Venezuela in late November to play for the Tigers. Washington teammates Jesus Flores, a catcher, and Henry Rodriguz, a pitcher, are also playing winter ball in their native Venuezuela this year, though for different teams. The Aragua Tigers are based in Maracay, a city in north-central Venezuela near the Caribbean coast and about 35 miles from Ramos’ hometown of Valencia.
Baseball players and their families are especially easy targets because of their relative wealth in a country where poverty is endemic. Texas Rangers catcher Yorvit Torrealba had to pay a ransom to return his 11-year-old son, Yorvit Eduardo, his brother-in-law, Daniel Antonio Alvarez Morales, and another relative from kidnappers. That incident happened on June 2, 2009.
The mother of former major-league pitcher Victor Zambrano, Elizabeth Mendez Zambrano, was kidnapped later that year on Nov. 8, 2009. She had to be rescued in a daring raid by police forces three days later. That incident occurred in Aragua – the same state where Ramos is from and where he was kidnapped. The Associated Press reported at the time that Mendez Zambrano was taken from her son’s farm outside of Maracay.
Maura Villarreal, the mother of former major-league pitcher Ugueth Urbina, was also rescued from kidnappers by Venezuelan police in a Feb. 18, 2005 raid. She was held captive in southern Venezuela, about 340 miles from Caracas, for over five months and demands for reach $6 million.
But things don’t always end so well. The brother of Arizona Diamondbacks catcher Henry Blanco, was found dead one day after he was kidnapped by gunmen on Nov. 30, 2008. Carlos Simon Blanco was taken from Guarenas, a suburb of the capital city of Caracas. Venezuelan authorities told the Associated Press at the time that the kidnappers were seeking ransom for Blanco’s release.
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