The movement of the Caribbean Series 2026 to the Mexican city of Guadalajara confirmed an unfavorable scenario for the Cuban baseball, being officially excluded from the tournament following the forced changes caused by the impossibility of holding the event in Venezuela.
According to ESPNthe Confederación de Béisbol Profesional du Caraïbe (CBPC) announced that the 2026 edition will take place from February 1 to 8 at the Panamerican Stadium, home of the Charros de Jalisco, after the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico and Mexico refused to participate in Caracas due to “external situations beyond their control”. The decision, of an extra-sporting nature, forced us to redefine both the location and the format of the tournament.
With the new scheme approved by the CBPC, the champions of the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will participate, Panama as guest country, and Mexico with two teams, which will be the finalists of the Liga Mexicana del Pacífico 2025-2026.
In this context, Cuba has been excluded from the competition, as has, for the moment, the champion of the Venezuelan league, whose integration has been left “under evaluation”, as indicated on the site page Cuban ball on the social network Facebook.
Cuba’s absence from the 2026 Caribbean Series continues its distance from the main event of Caribbean professional baseball, despite the island’s historic weight in the development of the sport in the region. This decision does not arise from sporting results, but rather from institutional and political reconfigurations that continue to affect the Cuban presence in high-level tournaments.
Guadalajara had already replaced Venezuela as host city in 2018, when it hosted the tournament initially awarded to Barquisimeto. Eight years later, history repeats itself, but with a clear consequence: Cuban baseball stays away from the Caribbean Seriesduring an event marked by unprecedented changes, significant absences and an exceptional format.
