Nationals catcher kidnapped

[Recursion]

Source: NY Post (I know, I know... they have the most complete article I could find)

Major League catcher Wilson Ramos, a young star seen as one of the building blocks for the Washington Nationals, was abducted by gunmen yesterday from his home in his native Venezuela.

Ramos, 24, who just finished his rookie season, was taken away in an SUV by four armed men in Santa Ines in central Carabobo state, a spokeswoman for his Venezuelan League team, the Aragua Tigers, tweeted.

She said Ramos was taken at 6:45 p.m. from his home, about 95 miles west of Caracas.

A person close to Ramos’ family, who asked not to be quoted by name out of safety concerns, said the catcher was at home with his father and brothers when several men “entered the house and took him away.”



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/nationals_catcher_kidnapped_Mo9LW3lseWIYh8y7enMGbI

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Talk about stealing home...

[no_hypocrisy]

1. It will be interesting to see how Chavez handles this.

[ret5hd]

3. Tell us how Obama would handle it.

[no_hypocrisy]

5. Wouldn't it be a State Department matter as it involves an American citizen in a foreign country?

[ret5hd]

6. if it were here...how would Obama handle it?

[Bacchus39]

12. I imagine the FBI would be involved if it happened in the US n/t

s

[pampango]

7. He's a native of Venezuela. I don't think he's been in the US long enough

to become a citizen.

[ret5hd]

8. crickets? really?

[pampango]

2. Here's an article from the Washington Post: Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos kidnapped in Venezuela

Wilson Ramos, one of the Washington Nationals’ most promising young baseball players, was kidnapped at gunpoint Wednesday night from his family’s home in Venezuela, leaving the team in a state of shock and raising questions about the safety of playing in a country ravaged in recent years by kidnappings and street crime.

The 24-year-old Ramos, the starting catcher for the Nationals, had returned to his native country for the winter and planned to participate in roughly 10 games for his Venezuelan winter league team, the Aragua Tigers, starting Thursday. Wednesday evening, four armed men arrived at Ramos’s mother’s house in the Santa Ines sector of the central city of Valencia, and took Ramos away, according to multiple news reports out of Venezuela.

“It’s true, Wilson Ramos was kidnapped 40 minutes ago,” Katherine Vilera, spokeswoman for the Tigers, said in a statement Wednesday evening. She said that Venezuela’s judicial police, the CICPC, were investigating.

Kidnappings have become a scourge in Venezuela. Crime in general is a major concern for Venezuelans, who complain that under President Hugo Chavez’s government homicides and drug trafficking have flourished. Cocaine trafficking from Colombia through Venezuela is rife, Obama administratoin officials say, and big cities like cCaracas have become among the most violent in Latin America.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/washington-nationals-catcher-wilson-ramos-kidnapped-in-venezuela/2011/11/09/gIQAS8tz6M_story.html

[Ohio Joe]

4. Joking about some poor guy being kidnapped... WTF?

Sometimes I just don't get it.

[Blue_Tires]

9. I hope he comes back safe...

[CatholicEdHead]

10. He was with the Twins before the Nationals

so it is also big news here. I hope he is returned safe.

[pampango]

11. Aljazeera: Venezuela hunts abducted baseball player

http://www.aljazeera.com/news/americas/2011/11/2011111145934401506.html

Venezuelan police are hunting for a gang that abducted Major League Baseball player Wilson Ramos at gunpoint in a case that has highlighted the country's serious crime problem. The 24-year-old catcher for the Washington Nationals, who was preparing to play for Venezuela's Aragua Tigers during the US off-season, was snatched on Wednesday from his family home.

Tareck El Aissami, Venezuela's justice minister, said anti-kidnapping units led by "the best investigators we have" were dispatched to the area in central Carabobo state. He vowed to rescue Ramos and capture his abductors, saying: "We're taking on this investigation with everything we've got."

Most kidnappings in Venezuela are for financial motives, with gangs demanding large ransoms and mostly preying on local businessmen and landowners. Security experts say only northern Mexico, where drug gangs wreak havoc, rivals Venezuela for abductions in Latin America.

The government passed a revised law in 2009 that stiffened prison sentences for kidnapping and also allows authorities to freeze the banks accounts of victims' families to prevent them from paying ransom.

Bodyguards typically shadow major leaguers when they return to their homeland to play in the winter league. "Every major league player has his own security, but we don't know if he had his security there at that time," Domingo Alvarez, vice-president of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League, said.

[sarcasmo]

13. Kidnapping is big business in Venezuela. Last I heard there was no ransom note.

[RainDog]

14. I hope he is returned safely!

his family must be sick with worry.