As the situation in Venezuela continues to deteriorate after one of the bloodiest months in recent memory, athletes abroad continue to speak out about the situation in their home country. Following the lead of soccer players Alejandro “Lobo” Guerra and Tomás Rincón, as well as fellow MLB star Miguel Cabrera, a group of 13 Venezuelan baseball players–led by Pittsburgh Pirates catcher Francisco Cervelli–recorded a video plea asking for an end to government repression and injustices towards protestors perpetrated by Nicolás Maduro’s regime.
The video–which was shared by Venezuelan journalist Alberto Rodríguez of Telemundo, in a tweet retweeted over 11 thousand times–features the 13 players speaking against the violence that has plagued Venezuela since Maduro took office in 2013, and includes an impassioned plea from Atlanta Braves outfielder Ender Inciarte: “they are killing us, they are taking our future. All of those kids, all of those students.”
The entire list of players in the video include Cervelli; his teammates Jose Osuna, Elías Díaz, and Felipe Rivero; Orlando Arcia, Jesús Aguilar, and Hernán Pérez of the Milwaukee Brewers; Inciarte; Eugenio Suárez and José Peraza from the Cincinatti Reds; Alcides Escobar and Salvador Pérez of the Kansas City Royals; and Gorkys Hernández of the San Francisco Giants.
The four Pittsburgh Pirates players delivered their statements in front of an upside-down Venezuelan flag, a common symbol of the anti-Maduro opposition.