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CCCAN — Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation

The Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation — chartered in 1947 by its own account, running the CCCAN Championships since 1960, and the body within which Zones II and III of Panam Aquatics operate.
✓ Last reviewed: October 2026
Full nameCentral American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation; Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Aficionados a la Natación[4][12]
Legal formAsociación civil, non-profit (Constitution of August 2014, Art. 1)[12]
SeatThe city or country where the sitting President resides (Constitution of August 2014, Art. 3)[12]
FoundedStatutes approved 16 December 1947, as the confederation states[3]
StatusZones II and III of Panam Aquatics operate “within CCCAN” (PAQ Constitution, Art. 6, 20 August 2023)[2]
World AquaticsNot itself recognised: World Aquatics recognises no zone or subregional body (Constitution, Art. 10.3)[1]
Members28 federations on the confederation’s member list; 31 countries in PAQ Zones II and III[5][2]
ChampionshipsCCCAN Championships, first held in San Juan, Puerto Rico, on 27 July 1960[3]

What is CCCAN?

CCCAN is the regional confederation of the aquatics federations of Central America, Mexico and the Caribbean. Its own history page names it the “Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (C.C.C.A.N)”,[3] and its constitution gives the Spanish name as Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Aficionados a la Natación.[4] The Spanish text dated Bridgetown, Barbados, August 2014 defines it as a sports body “que tiene carácter de Asociación Civil (desprovisto de todo matiz político o religioso, así como de todo lucro)” — a civil association, non-political, non-religious and non-profit — whose object is to organise, supervise and control aquatic sports in Central America and the Caribbean under the guidelines of FINA, now World Aquatics (Art. 1).[12]

It is not a continental organisation in World Aquatics’ sense. Its member countries sit inside Panam Aquatics (PAQ), the continental organisation for the Americas, whose constitution of 20 August 2023 defines two zones as “operating within CCCAN”: Zone II, twenty-one countries and territories from Anguilla to the US Virgin Islands, Belize, Haiti and Jamaica among them, and Zone III, ten: Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Puerto Rico.[2] Its championships cover swimming, diving, open water, synchronized (now artistic) swimming and water polo[6] — the swimming, diving, water polo and artistic swimming governed worldwide by World Aquatics. A 2015 revision of the constitution, in English and Spanish, is published only as Word files, whose text could not be retrieved; the 2014 text is the one cited here.[4]

What does CCCAN govern or do?

CCCAN does not write the technical rules. The rules of every aquatic discipline are World Aquatics’ rules, and the World Aquatics Constitution provides that its Constitution and Rules prevail over a continental organisation’s rules (Art. 11.2) — a hierarchy that binds PAQ and, through it, the zones.[1] Anti-doping likewise rests with World Aquatics and the system described on the anti-doping page.

What CCCAN runs is regional competition, organised by age group. Its championships page shows the categories 12 & Under, 13–15, 16–18 and Senior, across swimming, diving, open water, synchronized swimming and water polo, and publishes results, team standings and records year by year.[6] It also lists CAMEX and CISC among its competitions.[7] For the aquatic events of the Central American and Caribbean Games, its site carries the competition programmes, psych sheets and start lists headed “Juegos Centroamericanos San Salvador 2023” in swimming, artistic swimming, water polo, open water and diving.[8] The Games themselves belong to Centro Caribe Sports; PAQ lists a C.A.C. water polo qualifier in Cali (13–19 April 2026) and the XXV Central American & Caribbean Games in Santo Domingo (24 July – 8 August 2026) among its events.[9] National teams are selected by the national federations.

When was CCCAN founded and where is it based?

The confederation’s history page records a proposal “that in 1947, delegates from countries in the sector should meet in Mexico City”, and that, after a proposed charter was circulated, a drafting assembly was attended by Eusebio Ascue for Cuba, Leonte Guszán Vidal for the Dominican Republic, Alfonso Cruz for Guatemala and Antonio G. Mariscal for Mexico, and that “After several days of deliberations, the statutes of the organization were approved on December 16, 1947 and it was chartered as the Central American and Caribbean Amateur Swimming Confederation (C.C.C.A.N)”.[3] It names Porfirio Franca of Cuba as the first President.[3] The founding date rests on the confederation’s own account; no independent record of it could be retrieved.

No change of name is recorded. The constitution fixes no permanent seat: “El domicilio social de la CCCAN será en la ciudad o país en que resida al presidente en funciones” — the seat is wherever the sitting President resides (Art. 3).[12] The confederation’s officers are drawn from across the region: an earlier PAQ page on the then Zone 2 listed officers for 2019–2023 headed by Felix Calderon of Puerto Rico as President, with vice-presidents for the English-speaking Caribbean, Central America and Mexico, and the Spanish-speaking Caribbean.[10] No more recent list of officers could be retrieved.

How is CCCAN recognised?

Not by World Aquatics directly. The World Aquatics Constitution, in force from 29 July 2025, names five Continental Organisations as “the only continental bodies formally recognized by the Bureau” (Art. 10.2) and provides: “Other than any Continental Organisation, no other zone, subregion or similar regional organization shall be recognized by World Aquatics” (Art. 10.3).[1] CCCAN’s standing runs through Panam Aquatics, “a sports organization recognized by World Aquatics (AQUA)”, incorporated in Indiana, USA, as a public benefit corporation (PAQ Constitution, Art. 1).[2]

Within PAQ, Article 6 places Zones II and III “within CCCAN”, and Article 30 gives each zone two seats — one man, one woman — on PAQ’s twelve-member Executive Committee, so the CCCAN region holds four.[2] The structure has changed: the 2014 constitution states that the confederation “representa a los intereses de la zona dos de la Unión Americana de Natación (UANA)” (Art. 4),[12] and the earlier PAQ (then UANA) page likewise treated CCCAN as a single Zone 2.[10] CCCAN holds no IOC recognition, and no list of Centro Caribe Sports or Panam Sports naming it could be retrieved.

What does CCCAN organise?

The CCCAN Championships began, in the history page’s words, as “the I Central American and Caribbean Swimming and Diving Championships”, approved “with no cycle, in order to get an idea of its acceptance by the countries in this zone”, and “the I Championship was successfully held on July 27, 1960, in San Juan, Puerto Rico.”[3] At the Congress during the II Championships in San Salvador, “it was approved that this championship would be held biannually”.[3] The history page also dates the first infantile and juvenile water polo championships to August 1971 in Havana, and the first synchronized swimming championships to 10–16 March 1975 in Mexico City, held with the IX Swimming and Diving Championships.[3]

The championships page lists editions in Mayagüez, Puerto Rico (2011), and San José, Costa Rica (2013), and then every year — 2015 (Barbados and Puerto Rico), 2016 (Guatemala and Panama), 2017 (Trinidad and Tobago), 2018 (Aruba and El Salvador) and 2019 (Barbados) — with full results, team standings and new CCCAN records for 2015–2019.[6] A later event page, under “Events carried out”, holds the call for CCCAN 2023, a swimming programme dated 18 August 2023 and a complete-results file for CCCAN 2023 marked ESA (El Salvador).[8] The site also carries a CCCAN 2026/27 announcement with application forms in Spanish and English, naming no host or dates; no scheduled next edition could be confirmed.[7] CISC, also on the competitions list, has results from its I edition in Kingston, Jamaica, in 1976 to its XXI in Nassau, Bahamas, in 2016.[11]

Who are its members?

The confederation’s member list names 28 federations: Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curaçao, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Puerto Rico, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago, the Turks and Caicos Islands and the US Virgin Islands.[5] Its 2014 constitution also lists 28 affiliated countries (Art. 45), with the Netherlands Antilles in place of Curaçao.[12]

The PAQ Constitution’s Zones II and III together list 31 countries — the 28 plus Anguilla, Belize and Sint Maarten.[2] The two figures are given side by side; which of the three additional federations take part in CCCAN could not be established. World Aquatics recognises only one national body per country as a member (Art. 5.2).[1] Among the members are Mexico’s federation, Cuba’s, the Dominican Republic’s FEDDA, Puerto Rico’s, Jamaica’s ASAJ and Trinidad and Tobago’s ASATT.

References

  1. World Aquatics — Constitution, version in force as from 29 July 2025 (Arts. 5, 10–11). Accessed 2026-10-01.
  2. PanAm Aquatics Inc. — Constitution, 20 August 2023 (Arts. 1, 6, 30). Accessed 2026-10-01.
  3. CCCAN — History. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  4. CCCAN — Constitution (2015, English and Spanish versions). Accessed 2026-10-01.
  5. CCCAN — Member Federations. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  6. CCCAN — CCCAN Championships. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  7. CCCAN — Competitions. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  8. CCCAN — Juegos Centroamericanos San Salvador 2023, competition documents. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  9. Panam Aquatics — Events. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  10. Panam Aquatics (UANA) — Zone 2: CCCAN. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  11. CCCAN — CISC. Accessed 2026-10-01.
  12. CCCAN — Constitución de la Confederación Centroamericana y del Caribe de Aficionados a la Natación, Bridgetown, Barbados, August 2014 (Spanish, PDF). Accessed 2026-10-01.