Martín Beltrán Canseco, a sports promoter for more than four decades and a PRI sector leader in Piedras Negras, has died, his family confirmed. He founded leagues, tournaments and sports facilities and created the VIyDA Talent Center.
Piedras Negras, Coahuila — Martín Beltrán Canseco, a sports promoter for more than four decades and a PRI sector leader, died Tuesday night in Piedras Negras, according to confirmation from his family.
With a career spanning more than 40 years, teacher Juan Martín Beltrán Canseco became one of the pillars of grassroots sport in Piedras Negras. He pushed for sports facilities across the city and developed talent, and for many years promoted children's, youth, open-category and veterans' soccer.
Beyond sports, he was a former municipal official and a PRI political adviser. A defender of sport and a staunch PRI member, he demanded spaces for party members and for several years sought a place on the slates in elections to renew the city councils.
For several years he had been affected by various ailments. He overcame COVID-19 and later came through surgery that resulted in the amputation of his right leg.
Among his main achievements are founding the first free women's soccer league in 1990, creating the Rieleros fields in 1978 and developing the first soccer 7 league for people who are overweight in 2005. He also established inter-neighborhood volleyball, basketball and soccer tournaments starting in the 1980s.
He was state coordinator of the Copa Telmex and of school tournaments such as the Copa Coca-Cola and Copa Bimbo. He also created the VIyDA Talent Center, through which more than 2,000 young people have passed, some of them national team selections.
Beltrán also promoted the "Promotor Deportivo Voluntario" program, which activated 50 sports spaces in 50 neighborhoods at no cost to participants.
A tireless promoter, he was the driving force behind dozens of leagues, tournaments and sports spaces for young people, children and veterans, work that made him a central figure in grassroots sport in the border region.
As of yet, family members have not announced funeral services or tributes.
Familiares de Martín Beltrán Canseco