No word on Urbina's mother

Detroit Tigers' pitcher Ugueth Urbina is in Venezuela trying to secure the release of his mother from kidnappers who abducted her last week. The Detroit Free Press had two articles over the weekend on the topic: here and here. Urbina is one of four Tigers from Venezuela. In the first of those articles, the other three tried to defend their homeland from suggestions that it is especially dangerous. The headline didn't leave much doubt where the paper stands on the issue: Venezuela: Dangerous homeland. I don't recall headlines like that about America after Michael Jordan's father was killed or Nicole Brown Simpson was butchered. While other Venezuelan players mention the danger from kidnapping, the articles don't mention any other sports stars having been targeted, and there are some 70 or so Venezuelans in the major leagues. I don't know enough about the situation to say for sure that it is or isn't especially dangerous, but I don't think the Free Press does either, not enough to blame an entire country for one crime.