HOMESTEAD, Fla. - With its great diversity of politics and culture, understanding Latin America can be as complicated as hitting a 100-mile-per-hour fastball.

In order to better prepare personnel assigned to Special Operations Command South to work in countries across the region, a groundbreaking two-week class dubbed the “Theater Special Operations Command Staff Officer Development Seminar” was delivered at SOCSOUTH by the Joint Special Operations University, based at MacDill Air Base, Fla., and the United States Air Force Special Operations School, based at Hurlburt Air Field, Fla. The course was held Feb. 7-18 at Homestead Air Reserve Base, Fla.

This is the first course of this type and magnitude. The commander of SOCSOUTH, Navy Rear Adm. Thomas L. Brown II, and the command’s senior leadership, developed the course to meet the needs of service members assigned to the unit.

SOCSOUTH serves as the component command of U.S. Southern Command responsible for planning and executing special operations in Latin American and the Caribbean.

The course was intended to provide action officers with the knowledge and tools required to achieve results in developing relationships, building partner nation capacity and understanding threats in the region; much like a baseball player needs spring training leading up to baseball season.

“The seminar was developed as a result of a request from Rear Adm. Brown to the United States Special Operations Command to educate the staff, to give them a common ground of knowledge and tools” said Air Force Lt. Col. Lawrence Torres, director in charge of plans and policy for SOCSOUTH.

During the two-week course, SOCSOUTH personnel examined a variety of topics, such as the U.S. Department of Defense regional strategy and policy, U.S. interagency strategy in the region, illicit trafficking and dangerous regional non-state actors.

Following each course, the presentations were followed by a question-and-answer session. One of the instructors, Dr. Maria Velez de Berliner, gave a lecture on the defeat and resurgence of terrorist groups, and spoke about the importance of understanding the culture and the roots of regional terrorism.

“We want to give a view of Latin America and the way it functions today,” said Velez de Berliner, the president of the Latin Intelligence Corporation, based in Alexandria, Va. “We want to educate people on the causes of the persistence of terrorist groups in the region. Terrorist groups do not disappear without intervention. They morph, rebuild, and still exist.”

For U.S. Army Maj. Scott Bell, a SOCSOUTH logistics officer, having a better understanding of the region has benefited him. “As a newcomer to the unit and this region, these classes have served as a good introduction,” said the native of Cape Cod, Mass. “I did not realize how complex Latin America is, with so many differences between each country. I have learned about things we just don’t hear about in the news.”

The classes also left a significant impression on U.S. Navy Petty Officer 1st Class Bernard Call, who arrived at SOCSOUTH three weeks ago. “This course has given me invaluable insight into Latin America’s diverse culture,” he said. “The professors are very knowledgeable, and I think this has been a relevant introduction to the region.” Torres stated that the benefits of this course will further enable SOCSOUTH to improve its capacity to maximize the organization’s resources.

"After completing this seminar, the SOCSOUTH staff will have the basic foundation to empower them to execute the command’s mission in the region. In the future, SOCSOUTH will offer this course semiannually to newly assigned personnel,” he said.

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