The paper, in Spanish, with a lengthy English summary, analyzes the status of special education in Latin America and the Caribbean. Noting that many countries in the region lack a substantial system of special education, the paper proceeds to examine models for personnel training. Approaches for university-based teacher training as well as for less expensive programs to train paraprofessionals are described. Large shortages of qualified special education teachers are forecasted and results of an analysis of nine training models in Costa Rica, Venezuela, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Uraguay, and Paraguay are presented. Among conclusions drawn from the study are that there is a wide diversity in origins, admission criteria, academic levels, structures, and curricular contents of the programs; there should be increased sequence among all of them to improve regional training efforts; and conventional training strategies will never meet the projected needs for personnel. (CL)