Fuerzas Comando 2022 is now underway in Honduras with special operations units from around twenty different nations participating. Sponsored by the U.S. Southern Command, the semi-annual training exercise brings together U.S. Special Forces with special ops teams from South and Central America for a type of special forces Olympics.
The healthy competition is designed to instill team building, skill-sharing, and interoperability across Latin American SOF units.
Fuerza Comando is held in a different Latin American nation over the past 16 iterations that have been held since 2004, with the Honduran military hosting the event this year. Little known to the American public, there is a long-standing military-to-military as well as intelligence relationship between America and Honduras that stretches back to the Cold War when U.S. Special Forces and the CIA helped to train Contras as well as the Honduran military.
For example, Joint Task Force-Bravo (JTF-B) is a U.S. Southern Command entity that has been stationed in Comayagua, Honduras since 1983.
This year, the countries participating in Fuerza Comando include Argentina, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panamá, Paraguay, and America. Events began on June 14 with a series of stress shoots held in La Venta.
Related
In past years, U.S. Special Forces soldiers have reported that the competition is quite fierce between the SOF teams participating. The fabled Green Berets often don't win the competition, although they always put up a strong effort and build rapport with the host nation partners they work with in Latin America.
Want to get more connected to the stories and resources Connecting Vets has to offer? Click here to sign up for our weekly newsletter. Reach Jack Murphy: jack@connectingvets.com or @JackMurphyRGR.
Related
