Flores hoping for peace in his home country

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. -- Count Wilmer Flores among those hoping for a speedy resolution to the political strife in his home country of Venezuela.

"I'm really worried," said Flores, one of three Venezuelan players in Mets camp along with shortstop Wilfredo Tovar and pitcher Miguel Socolovich. "We don't know what's going to happen. They're just going to keep going to the street and we'll see what happens."

For weeks, Venezuelans unhappy with the country's political course have been protesting, at times violently, in the streets of major cities.

Flores is from Valencia, roughly 100 miles from the capital of Caracas. He said he has cautioned his mother, who still lives there with his aunt and other family members, not to leave home.

"I just don't want her to go out where it's dangerous," Flores said. "But where she lives, there's not too much going on."

Though Flores spent much of his winter attending two separate Mets-sponsored fitness camps in Michigan, he was in Venezuela from mid-November through mid-January.

"I wish everything works out for the best," he said. "I'm not with the president. I'm not with the other group of people. I just want everybody to be safe and our country to be good."