With nearly 40 years of experience in the Argentine Navy, holding various positions in artillery units, including that of commander, Captain Alberto Ismael Álvarez now focuses on strengthening the bonds of friendship and collaboration between the Argentine Armed Forces and their U.S. counterparts. His experience on the international stage, such as his participation on two occasions in the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus, and his deployment in the Spanish Marine Infantry Brigade, as well as his training in international relations and public international law, provided him with the necessary tools for his current role as Argentina’s liaison officer at U.S. Southern Command (SOUTHCOM).
Diálogo spoke with Capt. Álvarez at the SOUTHCOM headquarters about his key role in consolidating a robust strategic alliance between Argentina and the United States, based on trust, mutual respect, democratic values, and decades of friendship.
Diálogo: How long have you been Argentina’s liaison officer at SOUTHCOM?
Captain Alberto Ismael Álvarez, Argentine liaison officer at U.S. Southern Command: I have been at SOUTHCOM for almost a year now. I still have another year to fulfill my duties here, in an extremely professional environment. I feel identified with the different groups with which I interact, among the different tasks that I carry out. It has really been a very positive experience both professionally and personally.
Diálogo: What are the objectives of your mission as Argentina’s representative within SOUTHCOM?
Capt. Álvarez: Argentina was one of the first countries to deploy liaison officers to SOUTHCOM, along with Uruguay, almost 30 years ago. We have a long experience and there are many officers who have come through the Command, with different experiences and situations.
Everything that has to do with military cooperation, the strengthening of military relations between the different U.S. forces, with the different forces that I represent as a deleguate of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, makes my role as a liaison officer extremely valuable.
In terms of cooperation and training opportunities, in sharing communication systems and information exchange, it has all been very new and we have made a lot of progress in that interaction. The situation we have in my country now with President [Javier] Miley and Minister [of Defense Luis] Petri, who have sought a much greater exchange with the United States and also with different countries in the region to train, has contributed to a much closer relationship to face the threats we have in common, not only respecting the democratic values that unite us and strengthen us as republican countries, but also to transfer all those democratic values to the rest of the continent.
Diálogo: How important is it for the Argentine Armed Forces to participate in SOUTHCOM’s foreign liaison officer program, and what is the professional impact for you?
Capt. Álvarez: An absolute gain for me; absolute. I have learned a lot. Particularly, I think that it’s learning by getting to know the culture of the country where one is being hosted. Understanding the culture is being able to get to know each other better, communicate better and share interests, that’s what we are working on side by side with my fellow liaison officers, with the different directors that SOUTHCOM has. We have made significant progress in many training sessions, in many exchanges. This has increased partly as a result of political changes. SOUTHCOM members are constantly visiting Argentina to coordinate, to meet with Argentine military leaders, moving forward in the future to do more exercises, more training. Likewise, working with the Georgia National Guard, who are our partners under the State Partnership Program here in the United States.
That has increased, but above all the training of the Argentine military forces has improved a lot, as they are in the process of acquiring new capabilities, such as the purchase of F-16 fighter jets. We want to make progress, above all, in the modernization of many means of tactical and strategic mobility. In this respect we are interacting a lot with SOUTHCOM. We are also learning from the experiences and lessons of different countries to modernize and improve our doctrine, and also to adjust some approaches to the different threats that arise. In all of this we have permanent collaboration.
One of the issues in which we have made the most progress, for example, is in the exchange of information, specifically with illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. It’s a scourge that several South American countries are suffering and that affects our natural resources. We have had a lot of interaction and help from the United States through SOUTHCOM with the use of a platform that provides current information on the status of the fleets that are plundering these natural resources. This causes millions of dollars in economic damage to our countries. Everything has been really very positive.
Personally, accompanied by my family, my children practicing their sports at school, interacting, learning another language, learning another culture, getting to know another country, it really has also been a personal growth in that aspect.
Diálogo: Part of your mission as a liaison officer includes strengthening cooperation between the Argentine Armed Forces and their U.S. counterparts. What kind of combined training programs and exercises have you been working on so far, or are you looking to work on this year?
Capt. Álvarez: We are making very strong, very rapid progress with exercises for special forces. For the first time, Argentina is going to have a very particular, very special participation with a C-130 aircraft of the Argentine Air Force in the Tradewinds exercise that is going to take place this year in Trinidad and Tobago, participating in humanitarian cargo transport maneuvers, testing the humanitarian assistance and disaster response manual that has been developed in conjunction with SOUTHCOM and the different countries. For the first time Argentina is participating in this exercise with an aircraft, and it will gain extremely enriching education and experiences. We will also collaborate in testing this doctrine, which is been carried out in a combined form in a real exercise.
Our participation in the UNITAS exercise, in the second half of 2025, is also very significant. Argentina plans to participate with two surface units from its Navy. We are also increasing our participation in humanitarian aid exercises, together with the Georgia National Guard. The exchanges that have taken place have been very interesting, with the planning of special forces exercises here in the future.
Diálogo: Argentina will host the South American Defense Conference (SOUTHDEC), scheduled for mid-2025. What does it mean for the Argentine Armed Forces to lead a multinational event of this magnitude?
Capt. Álvarez: It is certainly an honor to be able to host this South American Defense Conference. What we have planned is to have a good framework for this conference; one that promotes the bilateral exchange that the chiefs of Defense maintain formally and informally. That they get to know each other better, that they have better access to the information they want to share, to have opportunities for dialogue and to analyze not only the issues that are going to be raised at the conference and that we are promoting and working on, but also other agendas that each of the countries has bilaterally. We will also try to take advantage of the opportunity to have a bilateral meeting between the United States and Argentina. So, it’s not a new experience, but it is an experience that renews Argentina’s interest in being an important player in South America, in hosting all the South American defense chiefs and giving SOUTHCOM the opportunity to analyze issues of regional relevance.
Diálogo: What is the role of the liaison officer in the planning of this iteration of SOUTHDEC?
Capt. Álvarez: It was very important to have participated as a liaison officer, invited by [retired U.S. Army] General Laura Richardson, [former SOUTHCOM commander], last year at SOUTHDEC in Chile. This allowed me, both personally and professionally, to get an idea of how SOUTHDEC is organized, how it is carried out and what kind of experiences the Defense chiefs have in bilateral talks, etc. All of this was really beneficial, as I learned how to carry out my role in preparation of SOUTHDEC.
Currently, I work side by side with the people from the J5 [Directorate of Strategy, Policy, and Plans], with my desk officer, as well as with the head of the section in charge of organizing the conference, and we are in constant consultation with Argentina. We have already held the first planning conference, and we are making progress on the issues to be examined to be able to address them in a profitable and multidisciplinary way, in a holistic way, with the participation of all the chiefs of Defense, giving them a truly leading role in the discussion that is going to take place.
So, it really is an honor for me to be collaborating on this, because it also allows me to have a new and relevant experience that has a regional impact and that, above all, helps me to strengthen ties with different interlocutors within SOUTHCOM.
Diálogo: What lessons in cooperation do you hope to take back to Argentina when you finish your mission at SOUTHCOM?
Capt. Álvarez: I think that the most important thing that one sometimes sets out to do in these exchanges, in these opportunities that our career offers us, is to be able to establish relationships with different people, with different key actors within SOUTHCOM, but also with other organizations. Having the possibility of accessing the educational staff of the Florida International University, being able to have links with the Perry Center, being able to have possibilities of accessing WHINSEC, the relations with the Georgia National Guard, these are all experiences that, being a combined Command, allow one to have a very broad vision of the different aspects of defense and security that concern the United States and the region.
The most important thing for me is to be able to establish these links, to take advantage of these links to learn, to train and, above all, to have a friend for when you have a need, to be able to pick up the phone and get to know the other person who is going to respond at SOUTHCOM. That really is the best added value that one looks for in this type of exchange. This is what I take away the most in terms of connections.
From a professional viewpoint, I have learned a lot of new things, things that one is not entirely familiar with or that are not really part of one’s training, or with which one is not in contact. It has really been a gain, and I hope that this year I can make progress, above all, with this type of relationship, with new opportunities, to be able to continue training and to be able to strengthen the military ties between Argentina and the United States, but also with other countries of the region.
