The context of educational reform within which U.S. higher education has worked in selected Latin American countries is examined, with attention directed to the specific experience of the University of New Mexico. The evolution of the Latin American Programs in Education office (LAPE) in the university setting, the organizational milieu in which the university attempts to deliver its professional expertise in the international arena, and the impact of those efforts upon the host countries who have been the recipients of the university's services are considered. Although in the early years LAPE was a marginal unit within the university, over a 15-year period it has achieved full legitimacy as a result of the growth of the bilingual faculty in the College of Education and in other university units, as well as the creation of a master's degree program in educational administration and supervision specifically designed for Latin American educators and conducted completely in Spanish. Attention is directed to the differences in degrees of bureaucracy among the cooperating units, the differences in time perspective and orientation, the differences in relationship to impersonality and value-neutrality, and the differences in organizational perspectives derived from goal differences. The difficulties of dealing simultaneously with three superstructures and three cultures--the university, the United States Agency for International Development, and the foreign government--are considered. The need for caution in evaluating the impact of the university program on educational practice in Latin America is addressed. (SW)