WEBVTT

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- Brigadier General Iren
Zoppi, U.S. Army South,

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FA-HUM, 2019.

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Fuerza Aliadas Humanitarias is

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a Commander, U.S. SouthCom sponsor,

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U.S. Army South conducted,

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regionally oriented, foreign
humanitarian assistant,

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disaster relief exercise.

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It is assigned to build partner nation,

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capacity for civil and military response

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to major disasters,

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and to improve

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and strengthen regional
civil military collaboration.

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U.S. Army South has been collaborating

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with disaster management agencies

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and regional military
forces in enhancing military

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and civil operation and
coordination for roughly 20 years.

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Yes, roughly 20 year.

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10 nations are scheduled to
participate in FA-HUM, 2019,

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these exercises are instrumental

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in strengthening professional relationship

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and collaboration between military forces

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and civilian agencies.

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It really enhances partnership
and it is the way of life,

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and by the way, (speaking
in foreign language).

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Army South have been
working in the region for

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about 20 years, in terms of cooperation,

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and partner nation planning,

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not only in humanitarian assistance

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but also any kind of sort
of problematic nations

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in terms of earthquakes,

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natural disasters, and
also areas that kind

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of really hinder our populations

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in the Americas.

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- [Interviewer] Okay, so for
that one you really wanna focus

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on planning and coordination, the.

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- Together we can, (speaking
in foreign language).

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The participating countries
include the Dominican Republic,

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the United States of America, USA, Chile,

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Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, Costa Rica,

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El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico,

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Panama, and Peru.

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Local agencies that help us with

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the emergency operations center,

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the Ministry of Defense,
Dominican Civil Defense,

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Dominican National Police,

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and the Armed Forces.

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International agencies helping us include,

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international agencies include

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the National Disaster Prevention

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in Central America,

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US Agency for International Development,

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the Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance,

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Humanitarian Rescue Unit,

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Caribbean Disaster
Emergency Management Agency,

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El Salvador Civil Defense Agency,

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SINAPROC, CORECO, Caritas, and IFRC.

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- [Lady] I'm sorry.

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- [Interviewer] Okay,
can you please explain

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your personal role

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in relation to the exercise?

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- Yes, I am the director for AREC,

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which is the Army Reserve

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Engagement Cell, this is the
Army Reserve Engagement Cell

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and it's a cell really
addressing and directing

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not only planning but also
the needs of Army South,

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in terms of units from the Army Reserve

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that can support not only planning

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but coordination and actions of units,

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attending and supporting Army
South mission and our vision.

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I'm also DCG,

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when United States Army Reserve,

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and also US Army South needs me,

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then I can act as a CG
or DCG for the commander.

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- [Interviewer] And then
can you explain to me

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why the US is supporting
this exercise FA-HUM?

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- Well yes, I can,.

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I will say the US shares
a common interest in

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the stabilization and the
secure nations in here,

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in Latin American region,

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but also the cooperation,

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the solid rating that we have with them

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is not about the shared common interest

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but also about the necessity
of working together

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and learning from each other,

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we are all subject matter experts

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and culturally and regionally we

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are learning from each other

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so we can do better in
humanitarian assistance.

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- [Interviewer] All right,
how does US involvement

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benefit the US?

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- It's a mutual benefit,

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it's working together, it's cooperating,

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it's understanding each other,

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mutual respect for each other,

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subject matter experts,

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and bring it all to the up fold,

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it's about solidarity and
it's about entertaining

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the fact that we want the America's free

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of any kind of danger and also
free to make their decisions

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to become free nations.

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But also the other factor
that we want these nations

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to feel that United States
is gonna be there for them

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whenever they need us.

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- [Interviewer] Further on this scope

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of US involvement in the exercise?

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- Hm-hm, yes, so the main point

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here is demonstrating that
US government is committed

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to the Dominican Republic
and also to the region,

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it's about strengthening
the hemispheric cooperation

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and collaboration between
humanitarian assistant

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and subject matters expert
throughout the entire nations

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that are linked with us,

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also with non-profit organizations,

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and profit organizations

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that help humanitarian aid and support.

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- [Interviewer] Perfect,
and then the last question,

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which we weren't able to rehearse,

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how well did the execution
line up with the plan?

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- It's all about cooperation and planning

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and having the plan pre-planning was

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I think very important.

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The planners for this
exercise took about six

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to nine month of planning the events

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and I will tell you that
the Dominican Republic did

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a great job,

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not only the factor

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that they constructed
really good buildings

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and really good activities
that can showcase each event,

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for example, it was an earthquake.

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You actually could look at the location

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and think there was an earthquake.

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When we see that the planners have taken

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the time to understand the culture,

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the language, the way they do things,

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and then show them our way,

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and then mix, maximize that
with subject matter experts

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in terms of lessons
learned from their region,

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we can create C scenarios
that really impacting.

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The X scenario that I went and saw,

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that was a devastation of
a really seismic earthquake

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and you can see buildings
all fall back into the floor.

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You will see also human beings
that were actually buried

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on the scumbers of all these buildings.

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And they actually were things under.

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There were bodies that they
will need to find with dogs,

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and those bodies will
be rubber, for example,

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mannequins that they have
placed, or real human beings.

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And you ask me how did they do that?

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They actually created a tunnel
through all the scumbers

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and all the building
locations and in that tunnel

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there was a human being alive
so the dogs could smell it

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and they could actually rescue.

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There were also vehicles that
were damaged by the debris,

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and we saw actually not only men and women

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from the Dominican Republic,

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but also organizations coming to aid

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and how they were able to do
conduct, humanitarian reasons,

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so when we see this exercise,
supporting the exercise,

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demonstrate that US government is here

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and committed to the Dominican
Republic and to the region.

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We see also that these exercises,

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they strengthen, collaboration

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between humanitarian
assistant and humanitarian aid

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that is needed,

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in the event that any
natural disaster will come

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to the region and we're here to support.

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- [Interviewer] In your personal opinion,

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why is it important that we
develop these relationships

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and collaborate with these organizations?

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- Collaborations is about
subject matter expert

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and it's about building each other

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and that mutual respect.

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Each country, each nation is
participating in this events,

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not only demonstrate their
subject matter expertise,

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their knowledge, their
capacity of wisdom sharing,

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the transparency in communication,

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how do they work with
social media, for example?

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How do they build new applications,

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to talk to the communities,

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and the future of the communities
in terms of a disaster?

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We also work in cooperation
of the planning.

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Planning to events of
something like this to happen

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to anytime, at any event, anywhere.

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So if you look at it
from the spheric location

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of the Latin America region,

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it's all about collaboration,

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so this not only provides
a subject matter expert,

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but also brings the capacity higher level,

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confidence building, and also
the factor that we're working

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together to learn from each other,

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and we got to applaud the role

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that the Dominican Republic
have done in this event

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'cause they have done an outstanding job,

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not only about the
factor of being inspired

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by exercises and training
themself for that,

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but preparing for events like that

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and then entire government
and the entire community

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and entire schools are part
of this event, so beautiful.

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- [Interviewer] Is there
anything else that you

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would like to add?

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(man mumbling)

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- Yeah, I do, okay.
- Okay.

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- The only limits are those of vision

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and that's an anonymous
writer that wrote that quote,

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and listen to this again,

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the only limits are those of vision.

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We need to have the vision
to look at the Americas

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and understand the meaning of cooperation,

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collaboration, solidarity,
it's all about being one,

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and the power of one.

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The idea that we have an Army South,

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al fuentes poemas,

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together we can show us
that we inspire each other,

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and inspiration of each other means

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that we all lead together.

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And leading together means
that we must work together

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in partnership, by
broadening our perspective,

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learning from each other,

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and putting the lessons
learned for every activity

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that we do, and in this way,

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not only the (speaking
in foreign language)

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but also the only limits
are those of vision,

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main thing that our
vision will always prevail

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because we are here for peace,

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and for the development of
great nations in the Americas.

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Go Army South.