U.S. Southern Command’s area of responsibility encompasses 31 countries and 15 areas of special sovereignty in Central and South America, and the Caribbean, which covers about 15.6 million square miles. The region represents about one-sixth of the landmass of the world assigned to regional unified commands. Inhabited with nearly 500 million people speaking over 100 languages, there is no other region we depend upon more for our prosperity and security, and with which we are more closely tied through bonds of family, culture, trade, democratic traditions and geographic proximity.