Wilson Ramos Kidnapped in Venezuela

Yesterday evening, Nationals’ catcher Wilson Ramos was taken from his Venezuelan home by four armed gunmen.  Ramos, who was with his family, was the only person taken by the gunmen, who threw the 24-year-old in the back of a green vehicle.  To this point, Ramos’s family hasn’t had any contact with the catcher’s kidnappers.

After the 2011 season, Ramos returned home to Venezuela to play in the country’s winter league.  According to Adam Kilgore of the Washington Post, Ramos planned to participate in roughly 10 games with Tigres de Aragua.  Ramos’s first game was scheduled for Thursday.

It is unknown at this point if the kidnappers are holding Ramos for ransom or if they simply robbed him.  In Venezuela, express kidnappings have become common occurrences.  During these events, people are taken, robbed and ultimately released after a short period of time.

But because Ramos is a high-profile baseball player, some figure this to be more than a simple robbery.  In several cases, Latin American baseball players or their family members have been kidnapped and held for ransom.

Ramos played in 113 games for the Nationals in 2011 and is seen as the club’s catcher of the future.  On the year, Ramos hit at a clip of .267/.334/.445 with 22 doubles, 15 home runs and 52 RBI’s.

One of the more well-known incidents involved former pitcher Ugeth Urbina whose mother was taken in 2004.  The kidnappers demanded $6 million in exchange for releasing Urbina’s mother, who was ultimately freed when Venezuelan police stormed the mountain camp where she was being held.

In another case, former player Richard Hidalgo was shot in the arm during an attempted carjacking in Venezuela in 2002.

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