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CAT — Shooting Confederation of the Americas

The Confederación Americana de Tiro, one of the five continental confederations the ISSF recognises; it gives its founding as Mexico City, 4 April 1973, and runs the Championship of the Americas.
✓ Last reviewed: October 2026
SportShooting — the rifle, pistol and shotgun events of the ISSF[4]
Founded4 April 1973, Mexico City, by 18 countries of the Americas, according to the confederation[2]
OfficeAv. Reforma 15-54, zona 9, Guatemala City; the constitution places the seat in the president’s country or where the Executive Committee decides (Art. 6)[6][3]
RecognitionListed by the ISSF as one of five recognised continental confederations (Rule Book, Edition 2025, Art. 1.24.5)[4]
PresidentCarlos Rene Silva Monterroso (Guatemala), per the confederation’s executive committee page[6]
Senior championshipChampionship of the Americas; XIV edition 2024 (Santo Domingo and Buenos Aires); XV edition planned for Lima, November 2026[2][7]

What is CAT?

The Confederación Americana de Tiro (CAT), in English the Shooting Confederation of the Americas, is the continental confederation for shooting in the Americas, and presents itself under both names on its site.[1] Its constitution gives both names in Article 1 and states there that the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) recognises the confederation as the continental confederation for shooting.[3] The ISSF’s own rule book lists it by its English name and Spanish acronym, “Shooting Confederation of the Americas (CAT)”.[4]

The constitution describes an international sporting confederation of national federations. Among its purposes are “To promote the development of all disciplines of the shooting sports in all countries without discrimination of ethnic, political, racial or religious grounds”, “To encourage and sponsor the organization of competitions and regional championships conducted according to the regulations of the ISSF and CAT” and “To provide technical control of the shooting events in the Pan American Games” (Arts. 5.2.5, 5.2.7, 5.2.9). Its official languages are Spanish and English, and “the Spanish language version will prevail” in interpretation (Art. 9).[3]

The confederation is run by an executive committee presided over by Carlos Rene Silva Monterroso of Guatemala, with vice-presidents from Venezuela, Mexico and Cuba, a secretary general from Peru, a technical director from the United States and an athletes’ representative from Brazil.[6] The constitution states no more specific legal form than that of a confederation.[3]

What does CAT govern or do?

CAT does not write shooting’s rules. Competition is run under the ISSF’s Official Statutes, Rules and Regulations, in force in their Edition 2025, second print, from 1 July 2026.[4] That rule book sets the continental confederations’ purpose “to maintain, to strengthen and to develop the sport of shooting in accordance with the Constitution and the Regulations of the ISSF” (Art. 1.24.1), and it limits what a continental championship may contain: its events “are decided by the Continental Confederation concerned, however they can only be ISSF recognised events that are listed as such in Rule 3.3.1” and “must be submitted for approval to the ISSF” (Art. 3.3.7).[4]

Within that frame the confederation organises its championships, appoints the juries for them; its constitution also lists among its purposes technical control of shooting at the Pan American Games.[3] At the 2024 Championship of the Americas in Buenos Aires the jury of appeal was chaired by the CAT president, and the technical delegate and the rifle and pistol jury chairs were officials holding ISSF licences.[9]

The executive committee also distributes continental quota places under the ISSF’s qualification systems: its circular on the Paris 2024 quota places records the winners at three CAT-run or Pan American events.[8] On anti-doping, no document retrieved names CAT as a separate signatory of the World Anti-Doping Code.

When was CAT founded and where is it based?

The confederation’s history page states that on 4 April 1973, in Mexico City, during the II Benito Juárez international competition, “18 países de América, se reunieron atendiendo la invitación de los hermanos Mario y Olegario Vázquez Raña para fundar la CONFEDERACION AMERICANA DE TIRO”. It names the eighteen as the Netherlands Antilles, Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Chile, the United States, El Salvador, the Virgin Islands, Guatemala, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.[2] The date and the founders are the confederation’s own account; no independent primary source for them could be retrieved. The founding date printed in the confederation’s constitution PDF did not render legibly and is not used.[3]

No renaming is recorded: the history page and the constitution use the same Spanish name, and the constitution gives Shooting Confederation of the Americas as the English form.[2][3] The year of the ISSF’s first recognition of the confederation is not stated in the rule book, which records only the current recognition.[4]

The seat is not fixed. Article 6 of the constitution provides that “Confederation headquarters shall be in the country of the President or in a location decided by the Executive Committee”.[3] The confederation gives its office as Av. Reforma 15-54, zona 9, Guatemala City, the home country of its president, and its executive committee met in Guatemala on 8–12 February 2026.[6][7]

How is CAT recognised?

The recognising instrument is the ISSF’s. Its Official Statutes, Rules and Regulations (Edition 2025, second print, effective 1 July 2026) provide that “ISSF recognizes the Continental Confederations which are composed of National Federations belonging in principle to same territory of a Continent” (Art. 1.24.2) and list five: the African Shooting Sport Federation, the Shooting Confederation of the Americas (CAT), the Asian Shooting Confederation, the European Shooting Confederation and the Oceania Shooting Confederation (Art. 1.24.5).[4]

The rule book also says what recognition makes the confederation responsible for. Its objectives include “To organize Continental Championships on regular basis” (Art. 1.24.6.3) and, with the ISSF Executive Committee’s agreement, ISSF competitions in its territory; “Each Federation may only belong to one single Confederation” (Art. 1.24.3); and the relationship with the ISSF “is regulated by specific ISSF Regulations or by contract” (Art. 1.24.4). Article 1.24.7 ties each confederation’s seats on the ISSF Executive Committee and Council to its number of members.[4] The IOC recognition belongs to the ISSF; CAT has none of its own.

The continental multi-sport tie is the Pan American Games of Panam Sports, where CAT’s own constitution lists technical control of the shooting events among its purposes; no Panam Sports document confirming that role could be retrieved.[3] Shooting is on the programme of the Lima 2027 Games (23 July – 8 August 2027).[10]

What does CAT organise?

The senior continental event is the Championship of the Americas. The constitution sets the purpose “To organize the Shooting Championship of the Americas every fourth year to be conducted according to the regulations of the ISSF and CAT” (Art. 5.2.8).[3] The confederation’s history page lists fourteen editions, from the first in 1973 at Vicente Suárez, Mexico to the XIII in Lima in 2022 and the XIV in 2024, split between Santo Domingo and Buenos Aires. It states that the first tournaments kept to the schedule agreed at the founding meeting, that the concept could no longer be maintained once ISSF World Cups and other events filled the calendar, and that from 2007 the championship was aligned with the distribution of Olympic quota places.[2]

The rifle and pistol part of the XIV edition, the “XIV Campeonato de Las Américas de Tiro – CAT, Olympic Qualification 2024 Rifle/Pistol”, was held at the Tiro Federal range in Buenos Aires from 31 March to 8 April 2024, with 163 athletes from 21 nations, according to its result book.[9] The confederation’s circular on Paris 2024 quota places lists winners at the XIII Championship (Lima, 2022), the 2023 Pan American Games in Santiago and the XIV Championship (2024).[8]

For the Los Angeles 2028 cycle, the document of the February 2026 executive committee meeting enters a “CAT XV CH LIMA NOV 2026”, a “CAT XVI CH 2028” and the Lima 2027 Pan American Games in an allocation table totalling 42 places; those figures are the confederation’s planning, and the ISSF’s own qualification system for Los Angeles 2028 could not be retrieved.[7] The confederation also announced a first Junior Championship of the Americas in January 2025.[11]

Who are its members?

Membership is defined in the constitution: “Members of the confederation are the national Shooting federations of the American Continent that are ISSF Member Federations, are recognized by CAT and are current with their annual CAT membership fee” (Art. 7.2.5).[3] Under the ISSF rule book, each federation may belong to only one continental confederation.[4]

The confederation’s member page lists federations from North America (Canada, Mexico and the United States), Central America and the Caribbean (among them Cuba, Guatemala, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Barbados, Aruba and Trinidad and Tobago) and South America (from Venezuela and Colombia to Argentina, Chile and Uruguay). Chile, Guatemala, Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic each appear with two federations. The page states no total, and no dated member count published by the confederation could be retrieved.[5]

The members meet in the General Assembly, the first of the organs the constitution lists, followed by the Executive Committee, the officers, the Technical Directorate and the commissions (Art. 8).[3] The executive committee’s members on the confederation’s site come from Guatemala, Venezuela, Mexico, Cuba, Peru, the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Canada, Ecuador and Puerto Rico.[6]

References

  1. Confederación Americana de Tiro (CAT) — home page. Accessed 2026-10-04.
  2. Confederación Americana de Tiro — Constitución e historia (history and list of Championships of the Americas). Accessed 2026-10-04.
  3. Shooting Confederation of the Americas — Constitution (English text, filed as CAT 2018), Arts. 1, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9. Accessed 2026-10-04.
  4. ISSF — Official Statutes, Rules and Regulations, Edition 2025, second print, effective 1 July 2026 (Arts. 1.24, 3.3.7). Accessed 2026-10-04.
  5. Confederación Americana de Tiro — Federaciones miembros. Accessed 2026-10-04.
  6. Confederación Americana de Tiro — Comité ejecutivo (officers and office address). Accessed 2026-10-04.
  7. Confederación Americana de Tiro — Executive Committee meeting document, Guatemala, February 2026. Accessed 2026-10-04.
  8. Confederación Americana de Tiro — Oficio CAT 2024-18, Road to Paris 2024 quota place winners. Accessed 2026-10-04.
  9. ISSF — XIV Campeonato de Las Américas de Tiro, Buenos Aires 2024, result book. Accessed 2026-10-04.
  10. Panam Sports — Lima 2027 Pan American Games. Accessed 2026-10-04.
  11. Confederación Americana de Tiro — Noticias (I Campeonato de las Americas Junior, 18 January 2025). Accessed 2026-10-04.