Cuba at the Central American and Caribbean Games (IX)

The 1958 general elections in Venezuela postponed the celebration of the 8th Central American and Caribbean Games, initially scheduled to be held December 2-18.

Thus, the world's oldest multi-sport event broke for the third time in its history the four-year sequence, since it was held from January 6 to 15, 1959 in Caracas.

The great absence of that edition was undoubtedly the Cuban delegation, which deprived the lid of the "indisputable quality of its athletes", according to the late journalist Enrique Montesinos in his book Los Juegos Regionales Mas Antiguos (The Oldest Regional Games).

The breakdown of Fulgencio Batista's tyranny at the end of 1958 and the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959, shook the island in such a way that everything else was secondary, Montesinos points out; so the largest of the Antilles, even though it was listed as the first alternate to host the event, ruled out its participation.

This would be the first of three absences of the Caribbean nation in 23 editions of the competition, as it was also absent in San Salvador (2002) and Mayagüez (2010).

Honduras, Haiti and the Dominican Republic did not attend the Caracas event either, so the number of participants remained at 12, after the inclusion of Guyana.

With the exclusion of bowling and golf, the number of sports was reduced to 17, while the number of athletes competing also decreased, now with 1,150.

Puerto Rico dominated baseball, a sport in which the Cubans had accumulated five titles in the seven editions held up to that date; and they also won in athletics track and field, with an outstanding performance by sprinter Manuel Rivera, who won the 100 and 200-meter dash.

For the third edition in a row, Mexico conquered the top of the ranking by country, with 53 gold medals (the first time it surpassed half a hundred), 37 silver medals and 42 bronze medals.

The Mexicans were at their best in tennis, water polo, soccer, volleyball, women's basketball and swimming.

In the medal standings by nations, the hosts climbed to second place with 35-31-34 and a wide lead in shooting, gymnastics, boxing and fencing, while the Puerto Ricans (9-19-8) took third place.