After a persistent struggle for three years the Caribbean Association of National Olympic Committees have finally scored a major victory for and on behalf of its members who do not yet have a National Olympic Committee and are not members of the International Olympic Committee.
On Wednesday 12 November 2014 while meeting in Vera Cruz, Mexico, the Executive Committee of the Central American and Caribbean Sports Organisation (CACSO) the proprietor of the quadrennial Central American and Caribbean (CAC) Games, endorsed changes to the organisation’s constitution to facilitate the inclusion of a category of Associate Members. On Thursday 13, one day before the commencement of the 22nd CAC Games, the CACSO General Assembly, meeting in the Fiesta Americana Hotel, Vera Cruz, voted unanimously voted in support of the amendments.
The constitutional changes open the way for Martinique, Guadeloupe, Curacao, St Maarten, Turks and Caicos Islands, Montserrat and Anguilla to become Associate Members if CACSO upon application. They would then be eligible to participate in the quadrennial CAC Games and other activities organised under the CACSO brand.
Chairman of CANOC, Steve Stoute, in making the case over the years insisted that his organisation ‘understands the spirit of Olympism to promote inclusion and not exclusion of the youths of the world in sport for the overall celebration and benefit of humanity’.
The next celebration of the CAC Games is in Barranquilla, Colombia in 2018.