Here are Willson Contreras' full comments about the situation in Venezuela.
What is most important for people here, for people in Venezuela to know to understand the situation? And what can they do to help, or help themselves?
We’ve been having tough moments since years and years ago. Now a days you can see a lot of people dying because of malnutrition, because of medicine, because of no security at all. I feel like I have to do something for my country besides play baseball and place Venezuela higher. So I created this shirt called “Freedom for Venezuela” because we are living in a regime and it’s not good. Socialism is not good. I think we have to get back to the democracy we should have because we’re one of the richest countries in the world. I’m so glad Venezuela has more than 50 countries supporting us with humanitarian aid, which Venezuela needs because there’s going to be a lot of families getting help for that.
It’s not easy to come to a ballpark and leave everything back and focus, but once you leave the ballpark everything that comes to my mind is Venezuela… how are the people doing there and when is going to be the end?
How do you balance that? How do you do it? It’s obviously on your mind and weighing on your heart… does baseball become an escape?
When I’m at the ballpark I’m happy, I enjoy my teammates and every second here. But when I get out of the ballpark, Venezuela comes to my mind and I wish I could do something more. To do the best for Venezuela. I’m doing everything I can do with my hands, trying to get my voice out there.
What about people leaving the country?
MLB
It’s not supposed to be that way because we’re born in Venezuela and you want your future to be in Venezuela. You want to have a future in your own country.
I’m not talking about as a baseball player because obviously it’s way different than normal people. Because God gave us a different kind of talent. God gave me the talent to play baseball, and my little brother, but God gave so much different talent that can be used in Venezuela properly and those talents are going away from Venezuela and that’s what hurts the most.
I went down to Venezuela... it’s hard to see kids from five to eight-year-old looking in a trash can for food. It’s hard to see people dying because they don’t have medicine at all. Now a days, it’s hard to go down there because you watch all of that. I have a different lifestyle and I feel sorry for them. When I went there, there was a time when I bought 40 meals and I went down to where I was born, Puerto Cabello, and I went to my street where I grew up and I started saying hi to my people and there were kids coming up to me asking for food. Thank God I was able to buy 40 meals and give it to them. People now are just starving. They’re just starving. They want something to eat. There are a lot of families that have nothing to eat at all. It’s not right. It’s got to be different.
If you find food, it’s going to be expensive. It’s not like here, you go to the grocery store and you can get whatever you want. But if you go to a grocery store in Venezuela, you don’t find nothing. It’s just hard.
We’re doing the best that we can do for Venezuela… I feel like I have to do something for my country. I don’t know if I’m going to be the only player to do this. I think if we’re together and on the same page, we’re going to be powerful.
How can Cubs fans help? Clearly they can buy a t-shirt, but what else they can do?
Clearly there is a ton of people who don’t know what’s going on in Venezuela. The last few days President Trump was talking about Venezuela, I went live on my Instagram and there were people asking if I like Trump or not. It’s not about if I like Trump or not, it’s about my country. He was talking about my country and I appreciate everything he has done for my country because he’s making decisions which another 49 countries are following. Now we can count on the humanitarian aid, which is big for us. But also there are a lot of people reaching out on social media asking how to help. I just posted a link in my bio and they can purchase one of these shirts and all of the profits will be donated to a Venezuela foundation, so that way they can help me and we’re helping Venezuela together.
Anything else you'd want people to know?
I just have the faith and hope that Venezuela is going to be back to where it needs to be because we’re rich. We have the oil. We have gold. We have diamonds. We have silver. We have all the minerals in Venezuela. It’s hard to see such a rich country… into nothing. Everybody doesn’t have the same heart because the regime knows how bad they’re doing to the country. They know they’re killing people. They know the military is killing people because the regime is making orders. You cannot go to the streets and have a democracy because the military will kill you just like that. It’s hard, it’s really hard. But like I said I just have the faith and hope we’re going to be back to where we need to be.
Willson Contreras is raising money for his country by selling "Freedom for Venezuela" shirts, with 100% of the profits going to Venezuela.
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