Chicago Cubs: Willson Contreras and MLB’s Venezuela crisis

Chicago Cubs catcher, Willson Contreras has become a leader in social media as an outspoken critic of current Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his government. What impact can he make?

President Donald J. Trump continues to call for the ousting of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro due to what critics call a fraudulent re-election last year making his recent candidacy illegal.  On top of the deplorable conditions facing the Venezuelan people and Maduro’s insistence, it is the United States fault, a new leader for the Venezuelan voice has risen in celebrity, world champion, Chicago Cubs catcher Willson Contreras.

Contreras has been hounding Venezuela’s current regime in social media hard since last season broke. While he tries not to bring his concern for his native country to the ballpark, it is all he is thinking about every other minute he is not behind the plate or training for another run at the championship. As he recently told Gordon Wittenmyer of the Chicago Sun-Times:

"‘‘When I’m here [at the ballpark], I’m not thinking of anything,’’ he said. ‘‘I’m just focused on what I need to do, where do I need to get better, how do I need to get better, how I can help our team win. ‘‘But once I step out of the ballpark, everything comes to my mind right away.’’"

Recently the starving country has gone without electricity for a period of time which made Contreras concerned about his parents and family members until some help arrived from not-so-distant friend’s of the current U.S. administration.