Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation


The Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association is a confederation governing body of athletics for national governing bodies and multi-national federations within Central America and the Caribbean. Membership of the Confederation is open to all National Governing Bodies for Athletics in any country or territory in the region which is affiliated to the International Association of Athletics Federations. Other countries may be granted observer status and may, with permission of the Congress, be allowed to compete in open championships. They will, however, not be entitled to vote at the Congress.
The Central American and Caribbean Athletic Confederation should not be confused with the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletic Association established later in 1988, being one of the official area associations of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, and also including federations from Canada and the USA. The CACAC considers the NACAC as parent organization,
and the CACAC constitution regulates that the IAAF Area Representative of the NACAC is an ex-officio member of its Permanent Executive Council.

History

With the initiative of the Mexican representative Mr. Carlos de Anda Dominguez, at the 10th
Central American and Caribbean Games held in June 1966 in the city of San Juan, Puerto
Rico, the need for the formation of a Central American and Caribbean Athletic
Confederation was discussed as well as a proposal for organizing the first Central American and Caribbean Championships.
The first Championships were held on the 5th and 6 May 1967, in Jalapa,
Veracruz, México. Discussion about the formation of the Confederation was started at
this time.
In Winnipeg, Canada, during the celebration of the V Pan American Games, a
tentative constitution was approved, a permanent committee elected and the site of the
second Central American and Caribbean Championships was awarded to Cali, Colombia,
for August 1969, with Havanna, Cuba, as the alternate site.
The Constitution was finally adopted on the occasion of the second
Championships in August 1969. It has been revised and amended at General Assemblies
in Guadalajara, Mexico, June 16, 1979; San Juan, Puerto Rico, July 5, 1979; Nassau,
Bahamas, August 22, 1980; Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, July 11, 1981;
Maracaibo, Venezuela, August 18, 1998; Bridgetown, Barbados, June 27, 1999, San
Juan, Puerto Rico, July 16, 2000, Bridgetown, Barbados, July 7, 2002 and San Salvador,
El Salvador, December 4, 2002, Havana, Cuba, July 5, 2009, Santo Domingo 2010,
Mayaguez 2010.

Presidents

The current president of the confederation, Alain Jean-Pierre was elected at the CACAC Congress held in San Salvador, El Salvador, in 2012. He follows
Víctor López, who was elected firstly in Maracaibo, Venezuela, in 1998, and re-elected in Grenada in 2003, and in Cali, Colombia, in 2008.
NameCountryPresidency
Ricardo Gerónimo Pérez Sarría1967–1978
?
Bernard J. Nottage1982-1990
?
Víctor López1998–2012
Alain Jean-Pierre2012-

Competitions

The CACAC hold five different championships: senior championships, junior championships, cross country championships, age group championships and under-17 championships.
A Central American and Caribbean Half Marathon Cup was held once in Negril in 2005, incorporated into the Reggae Marathon in Jamaica, but did not get renewed after this debut event after only two nations entered.

Member associations

CACAC consists of 34 full member federations and 5 observer members: 29 of the full member federations are members of NACAC, and 5 of the full member federations are members of ConSudAtle. The 5 observer members are non IAAF members.

Former member associations

At their Council Meeting, the IAAF announced, that because the Netherlands Antilles has ceased to exist as a separate territory, athletes will not compete anymore as AHO but as Holland, and IAAF membership will drop from 213 to 212. The CACAC published the decision in their own newsletter. Curaçao, one of the five former island territories of the Netherlands Antilles, was invited as observer member.