Abductors’ car found as the search continues The vehicle used by three men to abduct Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos was found Thursday morning, a potential clue to help investigators in Venezuela locate the missing 24-year-old.
Ramos was taken at gunpoint Wednesday at approximately 7 p.m. local time in front of his mother’s house in the city of Valencia, 108 miles from the Venezuelan capital of Caracas. But more than 24 hours later, the kidnappers still had not contacted the Ramos family to ask for ransom money, according to a source close to the family.
Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela’s interior and justice minister, told Venezuelan reporters Thursday that an orange 2007 Chevrolet Activa, stolen Tuesday night in Valencia, is believed to be the getaway vehicle. It was found abandoned near the town of Bejuma, about 31 miles west of Valencia.
El Aissami’s department later issued a press release in Spanish on its official website that said a team of “high level” criminal investigators known as the Scientific, Penal and Criminal Investigative Body (CICPC) is in Valencia to begin an investigation to find Ramos and apprehend his kidnappers.
Ramos returned home this month to play in the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. He is a member of the Aragua Tigers, a team based in Maracay, a city in north-central Venezuela near the Caribbean coast and 35 miles from Valencia, his hometown. Ramos played in 113 games for the Nats in 2011 and had 15 home runs — a club record for his position — and 52 RBI.
It was a promising start in his first full major league season. Ramos was acquired by Washington in a trade with the Minnesota Twins on July 29, 2010. There are currently eight other members of the Nats’ organization participating in the Venezuelan winter league, including big leaguers Jesus Flores, a catcher, and Henry Rodriguez, a relief pitcher.
“Our foremost concern is with Wilson Ramos and his family, and our thoughts are with them at this time,” read a joint statement written by Major League Baseball and the Nationals. “Major League Baseball’s Department of Investigations is working with the appropriate authorities on this matter. Both Major League Baseball and the Washington Nationals have been instructed to make no further comment.”
Baseball players and their families are especially inviting targets because of their relative wealth in a country where poverty is chronic. In June 2009, 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 case remains part of a string of high-profile kidnappings in the country in recent years.
“[Ramos is] not a U.S. citizen. He is a, I believe, a green card holder,” U.S. State Department spokesman Mark Toner said at its daily briefing Thursday. “It’s obviously of great concern to us. We did cite in our country-specific information the very real dangers of kidnapping and violent crime in Venezuela, and we condemn these kinds of violent acts. And we stand by to help, in whatever way possible, the family, if they contact us.”
