CARACAS, Venezuela — The government sent top investigators Thursday to hunt for Washington Nationals catcher Wilson Ramos, whose abduction has shaken Venezuela’s elite athletes and focused attention on the nation’s sharp rise in kidnappings for ransom.
The 24-year-old player, who had returned to Venezuela after his rookie season, was just outside the front door at his home in the town of Santa Ines on Wednesday night when an SUV approached, armed men got out “and they took him away,” said Ramos’ agent, Gustavo Marcano.
It was the first known kidnapping of a major-league player in Venezuela, though the relatives of some ballplayers have previously been held captive for ransom.
Police found the kidnappers’ vehicle abandoned in the nearby town of Bejuma on Thursday morning, Justice Minister Tareck El Aissami said. He 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.
“We’re taking on this investigation with everything we’ve got,” El Aissami said.
Major League Baseball and the Nationals said the leagues’ Department of Investigations was working with authorities.
“Our foremost concern is with Wilson Ramos and his family and our thoughts are with them at this time,” the team and the MLB said in a joint statement, adding there would be no further comment.
Ramos was outside with his father and two brothers when the SUV pulled up with four men inside, three of whom got out and seized the player, Marcano said.
“The abductors haven’t made contact with the family or with anyone,” said Domingo Alvarez, vice president of the Venezuelan Professional Baseball League. “We’re worried.”
Ramos is a key young player for the Nationals. As a rookie in 2011, he hit .267 with 15 home runs and 52 RBIs in 113 games. He also threw out 19-of-67 runners attempting to steal a base, a 28 percent success rate that ranked third among qualifying catchers in the NL.
Washington acquired Ramos from the Minnesota Twins in a trade for all-star reliever Matt Capps in July 2010. He is one of dozens of Venezuelans in professional baseball, and security while at home has increasingly become a concern for the players and their families as a rising wave of kidnappings has hit the wealthy as well as the middle class.
Venezuelan police said 618 kidnappings were reported in 2009, and the numbers have grown rapidly in recent years. In 1998, when President Hugo Chavez was elected, just 52 kidnappings were reported. Security experts say the real number of kidnappings today is much higher because many cases aren’t reported to authorities.
The wealthy have taken steps to protect themselves. Sales of armored cars have soared in the past several years. Bodyguards typically shadow major-leaguers when they return to their homeland to play in the winter league.
In June 2009, then-Rockies catcher Yorvit Torrealba’s 11-year-old son and brother-in-law were kidnapped and released a day later.
