The first “gift” received by the new organizing committee of the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games San Salvador 2023 was the bronze medal of Herbert Aceituno in the powerlifting tournament of the Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
The powerlifting of the Parapan American champion of the Lima 2019 Games was followed in the Central American country as if it were a series of penalty kicks played by its soccer team.
“Herbert Aceituno made history by winning the first medal for El Salvador in Paralympic Games,” wrote on social networks the president of the National Sports Institute (Indes), Yamil Bukele, shortly before the fact focused the attention of the digital platforms of that nation.
Unlike classic weightlifting, in powerlifting three exercises are performed in the following order of execution: squat, bench press and deadlift. In none of them is the barbell lifted above the head.
Aceituno’s victory in the 59 kg came shortly after her country’s Legislative Assembly approved with 76 votes in favor and five abstentions the law creating the Organizing Committee for the regional Games.
The event will be held from May 12 to 27, 2023.
Originally, the Central Caribbean Games were scheduled for 2022 to be held in Panama, a country that suddenly resigned last summer due to the effects of Covid-19.
Last April, the other emerging candidate along with San Salvador, the Puerto Rican city of Mayaguez, withdrew from the race because it did not have the economic resources from the government.
The Committee to be known as “COSSAN 2023” will be led by the head of Indes, Yamil Bukele, and will be composed of representatives of various ministries and other officials appointed by the Olympic Committee of El Salvador (COES) and the mayor’s office of San Salvador.
“Thank you, deputies, for this support of great benefit to the great family of Salvadoran sport,” the sports leader posted on Twitter.
“We are beginning to mark the work route to move forward,” Dominican Luis Mejía Oviedo, president of Centro Caribe Sports, told Around The Rings on Friday.
Mejia said that in the coming days he will travel to El Salvador to formalize the first agreements with the organizers.
COSSAN 2023 must execute the resources for the celebration of the Games, authorize judicial and administrative powers and issue donation certificates to sponsors.
The law includes a “declaration of urgency” for acquisitions and contracting of equipment, goods and services, as well as construction of sports infrastructure, financed with public resources.
The approved regulations detail that the committee is an institution of “public interest and utility” in view of the legacy that will be left to the country in sports infrastructure, “which will contribute to the economic development and social welfare, promoting our sport and tourism in the country at an international level”.
The committee will be able to create, in addition to the flag, the emblem, anthem, symbol, slogan and other distinctive signs of the XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games.
Its funds will come from Olympic organizations and national and international cooperating organizations, donations and legacies from the private sector, legal or natural persons, non-profit associations and foundations, in cash or in kind, and income from legal activities carried out for the benefit of the committee and the events it organizes.
The Games were moved from March, as planned, to May to guarantee repairs to the sports facilities, most of which were used during the 2002 version organized by San Salvador. The Central American capital had organized them for the first time in 1935.
The government of El Salvador will modernize 25 sports complexes over the next two years with a loan of more than US$115 million from the Central American Bank for Economic Integration (BCIE).
The new Organizing Committee will be in charge of the control and execution of these funds, which seek to rehabilitate, improve and equip the facilities in time for the next XXIV Central American and Caribbean Games.
Authorities believe that this program will create more than 4,000 jobs.
The National Park and several stadiums, including the Jorge “Mágico” González soccer stadium, the Sports Palace, sports complexes and the national gymnasium, are among the venues to be remodeled.
Under BCEIE’s conditions, the government will be able to repay the loan over a 20-year term, including a 4-year grace period and an indicative annual interest rate of 2.79%.
In spite of the health crisis and the consequent financial crisis that have filled the region’s sports calendars with uncertainty, El Salvador accepted the challenge of organizing, in barely 20 months, the mega-event to be attended by more than 5,000 athletes from 38 countries.
The San Salvador Games will be held only six months after the XIX Pan American Games in Santiago de Chile.
It will be the second time that both events coincide in the same year. In 1959, Caracas hosted the Central American and Caribbean Games in January and Chicago hosted the continental games in September.