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(June 2026) -- We have added historical coverage of the Latin America Region tournament to the Unpage site! Click on the left side of this page to explore past tournament winners and results. As part of this coverage, we have begun our coverage of the 2026 Latin America Region tournament -- click for details. ----- 2026 brings our 30th and final summer of coverage for the international tournament, and our coverage this year will begin with post-district tournament competition.
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Our coverage of the Latin America Region tournament launched on June 10, 2026. Click to contact the webmaster with any comments or questions about this site.
As Little League Baseball rapidly expanded following World War II, it was inevitable that the organization's growth would spill beyond the U.S. borders. That happened in 1951, when Little League established leagues in Canada as well as its first presence in Latin America with the chartering of leagues on either end of the Panama Canal Zone. Despite their remote distance -- the canal sits roughly 2,200 miles from downtown Williamsport, Pennsylvania -- the Canal leagues both entered that year's tournament. The Canal Zone was organized as an area tournament within what was then Region 4, and after the Pacific league topped the Atlantic league in a playoff, the victors traveled to Northern New Jersey to compete in the District 1 tournament. The Pacific league fell, 4-0, to Lyndhurst Little League (New Jersey) on August 8 before concluding its visit to the states with a series of exhibition games.
Five years later, Venezuela established its first charter when Frank Poteraj, a New Jersey native working as an accountant at a U.S. oil company's office in Maracaibo, organized that country's first league. Maracaibo was assigned to a district on Long Island, and made its own long journey north that year, edging Port Washington Little League (New York) in an opening round game before falling in the District 3 semifinals. The next year, Maracaibo made a return trek to New York, where the Venezuelans emerged as the District 18 champions and advanced to the Section 4 tournament.
The most famous Latin American league in Little League's early era was Industrial Little League from Monterrey, Mexico. Newly chartered along with a league in Mexico City, Monterrey crossed the border to compete in an area tournament in McAllen, Texas, in late July. They would return home a month later as national heroes after having won 13 consecutive games and the Little League World Series title. The last of these victories, a pitching gem delivered by Angel Macias against La Mesa Northern Little League (California), remains the only perfect game thrown in the Little League World Series championship game.
Each of these pioneering teams played through tournaments in the U.S., but in 1958, Little League Baseball created the Latin America Region as it expanded the Little League World Series to an eight-team field. In the region's early years, Mexico, Puerto Rico, and Venezuela were regular entrants, and Aruba, which had recently chartered its first league, joined on occasion as well.
Teams entering the Latin American Region tournament must fund their own travel to the tournament, and in many years during the 1960s, the Mexico national tournament served as the region tournament when no other Latin America countries entered teams. (Puerto Rico was assigned to the Eastern Region between 1963 and 1967.)
That arrangement changed in 1967, with what Latin America Region officials consider to be the first annual region tournament. Four area tournament champions from Mexico and a team from Nicaragua met at Parque Cuauhtémoc in San Nicolás de los Garza, Mexico, with Mexico's Linares Little League advancing to the Little League World Series. The next year, four countries each sent their champions to the region tournament, and since this time, the Latin America Region tournament field has consisted of national champions from throughout the region. The region tournament grew along with Little League's presence in Latin America: six teams entered the 1969 tournament, and by 1973, the field encompassed eight entrants. Leagues from over two dozen different countries and territories have participated in Latin America Region tournaments since its inception.
Little League Baseball expanded the Little League World Series from eight to sixteen teams in 2001. With this change, the Latin America Region -- which previously advanced one team to South Williamsport -- remained intact as an administrative region but was split into three regions for tournament competition. Central and South American countries competed in an evolved Latin America Region tournament, Mexico was granted direct access to the series, and island nations and territories throughout the Caribbean began competing in a new Caribbean Region tournament.
The Little League World Series expanded further in 2022, growing from 16 to 20 teams. Since this expansion, various countries, including Cuba, Curacao, Panama, and Puerto Rico, have been granted direct Little League World Series access on a rotating basis.
Four teams representing the Latin America Region have won the Little League World Series. These include Industrial Little League (Monterrey, Mexico) in 1958, Coquivacoa Little League (Maracaibo, Venezuela) in 1994, Guadalupe Linda Vista Little League (Mexico) in 1997, and Sierra Maestra Little League from Maracaibo in 2000. In addition, Curacao, which falls administratively under the broader Latin America Region, won the Little League World Series while representing the Caribbean Region in 2004 (Pabao Little League) and 2026 (Pariba Little League), and Industrial Little League from Monterrey won the Little League World Series in 1957 while competing as part of the Southern Region.
Click to view a timeline showing the evolution of the Latin America Region Little League tournament structure.
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