Young Venezuelan ball players 'wanted to stay' in U.S.

FILE PHOTO: Baseball little league player Adrian Salcedo, 13, talks with his teammate Ibrahim Ruiz's father, Jorge Ruiz, after being accepted in Diamonds Prospect baseball academy in Maracaibo, Venezuela, September 14, 2019. REUTERS/Manaure Quintero

MARACAIBO, Venezuela (Reuters) - While playing for Venezuela in baseball's Little League World Series in the United States last month, 12-year-old Adrian Salcedo ate tacos and Chick-fil-A, donned a virtual reality headset to envision himself hitting home runs in big league ballparks and marvelled at the lush grass of the fields.

Now back at his four-room house in the western city of Maracaibo, hard-hit by Venezuela's protracted political and economic crisis, the boy's hopes centre on his own version of the American Dream.