“I feel selfish saying everything is okay, because everything [being] okay with my family doesn’t mean everything is okay with the country,” Rojas said
Credit: Ric Tapia/Getty; Edilzon Gamez/Getty
NEED TO KNOW
- MLB star Miguel Rojas opened up about his family’s close call while they were in Venezuela’s capital when the deadly earthquakes struck this week
- The Los Angeles Dodgers player said his wife and children were unharmed and described the devastation as “really tough”
- Rojas and his team honored earthquake victims by wearing caps with “VZ” during a game against the San Diego Padres
MLB star Miguel Rojas opened up about his family’s terrifying experience during the deadly Venezuelan earthquakes this week.
The Los Angeles Dodgers player and Venezuela native, 37, told the New York Post that his wife, Mariana, and their two children, Aaron and Skye, had been in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas when two earthquakes with magnitudes of more than 7 hit the country.
“Literally two blocks away from where my family was, two buildings collapsed — the whole buildings,” Rojas told the outlet
Credit: miggyslocker/Instagram
He added that his loved ones were unharmed in the incident, saying, “I’m lucky. I’m really lucky to have my family still alive and still with me.”
The athlete told the outlet that his family members had been back in Venezuela to take care of personal documentation, and his wife, in particular, had been getting her passport renewed.
Rojas said he has been in contact with his wife over the last couple of days, but they were unsure of when she would be able to return to the U.S. due to the situation, which also affected other baseball players in the league, including his teammate and fellow compatriot Edgardo Henriquez.
“It’s really tough to see teammates of mine and players that I played with at some point in my career to lose family members, to lose kids,” he told the New York Post. “It’s really devastating. It’s been really hard for me to go to sleep at night … I just feel terrible.”
“I feel selfish saying everything is okay, because everything [being] okay with my family doesn’t mean everything is okay with the country,” he continued. “We’re going through really tough moments right now. I just wish and hope everyone will pray for us because it’s devastating seeing how many families have lost everything.”
To recognize the people who were impacted by the earthquakes, Rojas and his team, as well as their opponents, the San Diego Padres, wore caps with the letters “VZ” sewn on the sides for their game on Friday, June 26.
“I just want to be able to put a message out there for everybody to keep us on their mind, because it’s a really difficult moment,” he told the New York Post. “It’s not [just] what happened, but what’s going to happen now in the future for people to recover from everything.”
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The recent Venezuela earthquakes were some of the deadliest the country has ever seen with over 900 people reported dead and over 3,3000 injured as of June 26, according to CBS News.
According to the outlet, the coastal region of La Guaira, which was located north of Venezuela's capital Caracas, suffered some of the heaviest losses in casualties and building damage. Several nearby areas continued to experience aftershocks on Friday, per the outlet.
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