The early history of telecommunications in Latin America is briefly recounted. Some activities arising from international American conferences are described. Differences between Latin American and US networks are identified. An overview of current Latin American systems is followed by details of networks in Colombia, Uruguay, and Costa Rica.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>