Fuerzas Comando 2024
CERRO TIGRE, Panama — Special Operations competitors from 17 countries were welcomed by local Panamanian law enforcement and military during the opening ceremony of Fuerzas Comando 2024 (FC24) in mid-May. Fuerzas Comando is an exercise consisting of a high-level leadership seminar targeted at international counterterrorism work and a Special Operations skills competition in urban, rural, and aquatic areas where tactics and techniques are tested in counterterrorism action procedures. The 2024 participating countries are: Argentina, Belize, Brazil, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, United States, Guatemala, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Dominican Republic, and Trinidad and Tobago.
Fuerzas Comando's goal is to identify the most skilled and proficient special forces operatives while strengthening partnerships between nations through a competition held in the heat of Panama, May 13-24. Each participating nation sends an assault team, a sniper team, one evaluator to participate in a special operations skills competition, and three distinguished visitors to participate in the Distinguished Visitors Program/Senior Leaders Seminar.
Nations participating in FC24 are able to build partnerships with their competitors. This partnership allows them to exchange experiences and gain new knowledge about their counterparts, countries, and cultures. This new knowledge allows nations to refine the tactics used by their Special Operations Forces. Countries become more capable of confronting common threats by increasing their special operations capabilities after competing each year in Fuerzas Comando.
During the opening ceremony, overseen by distinguished Panamanian officials and U.S. military leaders, each national team was introduced as they marched in for their entrance. Maj. Gen. Peter Huntley, Commander of the Special Operations South, and Juan Manuel Pino, Panama’s Minister of Public Security, both shared opening remarks during the ceremony. Throughout the ceremony, many current and previous FC competitors were honored with roles of importance, like the lighting of the torch carried by Second Lieutenant 20235 Josué A. Juárez, the presentation of the FC trophy by the 2023 champions, and the guarding of the trophy until the closing ceremony by Captain Roswell Ruiz of El Servicio Nacional de Fronteras, Second Lieutenant Abel Rodriguez of the National Police and Staff Sergeant Edwin Buitrago of El Servicio Nacional Aeronaval. The ceremony ended with the playing of the U.S. and Panamanian National Anthems and words of well wishes and good luck.
Over the course of 10 days, the assault teams will compete in events like a confidence course, close quarter combat, and rucksack march. While the sniper teams will compete in events like marksmanship, mobility, and concealment.
Fuerzas Comando became an annual event in 2004, with this year being the third time hosted in Panama. The most notable performer within FC is Colombia, having won the competition on 11 different occasions.
After each segment of the competition, the judges will release the rankings for the competitors to view. The winning country will be announced at the Fuerzas Comando closing ceremony and will receive the FC trophy and the title of, “best special operations force in the Americas.”
