At 4 o'clock in the morning in the city of San Juan, Puerto Rico, CACSO President Héctor Cardona died after a hard battle with a liver condition.
Cardona, 81 years old and born in the town of Naguabo, was president of CACSO since 2003 and was in his fourth term as head of the oldest regional organization on the planet. His life was linked to the sport from a very young age, practicing baseball and athletics. He was a boxing referee and since 1972 President of the Puerto Rico Boxing Federation and later Vice President of the International Federation. In the late 1970s and 1980s, he was secretary general of the Puerto Rico Olympic Committee. He then became president of COPUR from 1991 to 2008.
As president of the CACSO he had great successes, leaving the organization solid in its finances and in its operative commissions. Under its leadership the CACSO has grown with innovative and digitized projects such as the Organization Manuals of the Games, the Posters of each of the editions held, documentaries of each of the Games and its most recent project the Digitized Memories of each one of the Games celebrated, leaving a permanent legacy of the history and the operation of the CACSO. Since his presidency he has always been committed to sport in the Caribbean and Central American region, and was a great defender of all the causes of the member countries of the organization and paving the way so that in the Games of Barranquilla seven territories without own Olympic Committee could Participate in the Games as Associate Members, giving a unique opportunity to young athletes to participate together with their Caribbean neighbors.
His comrades in the CACSO including the Bermuda Olympic Association President Judy Simons regret the loss of their leader.
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