UPDATE: 11/12/11: Despite the fact that initial reports that the woman Ramos is embracing in the pictures to the right was his girlfriend, we are now aware that this is not accurate. Rafael Rojas (a Rockies beat writer, who also works for a Venzuelan newspaper that covers the Venezuelan baseball league), just passed along this quote from Ramos:Wilson Ramos: “Now it’s time for me to enjoy my family, my baseball and the fact I’m single, no girlfriend”
Washington Nationals catcher, Wilson Ramos has been found and rescued by police commandos after an airstrike in his native Venezuela.
Ramos spoke to a group of reporters upon his return, and thanked his rescuers “I am very happy for the rescue operation they carried out. Very thankful to the government and the national army. I didn’t expect them. Where they were holding me captive was a very remote place, basically a jungle, and see, I was praying to God to bring me home safely to my family and look at these guys, they risked their lives to save mine and I am very thankful.”
Ramos reports being physically unharmed, and told Nationals GM Mike Rizzo that he would resume baseball activity once he’s recovered from the significant “psychological harm,” endured.
Ramos returned home to a jubilant celebration with friends, family and his girlfriend (whose name we do not know yet). Ramos thought of his family during his ordeal, saying: “They put me in a room with a bed. I was lying there. It was hard for me to think about, if I was going to get out alive first of all … about how my family, my mother were.”
Venezuelan officials report that three of his alleged captors have been taken into custody. Various statements and reports indicated that there were up to five gunmen involved with the original abduction of Ramos which took place at the home of a relative.
