While reviewing the pertinent literature for a planned project on caiman systematics, I came across this Crea et al. paper, which refutes Freiberg and Carvalho's (1965) proposed subspecies of the broad-snouted caiman, Caiman latirostris. Both of these papers were originally published in Spanish-language journals, and I took the liberty of translating the Crea et al. paper for use in my research. Recognition of subspecies, as a general notion, is a practice that has done systematics much more harm than good, and the subspecies debates pertaining to crocodilians have been particularly odious. Frair and Behler (1983. Review of Liste der Rezenten Amphibien und Reptilien. Testudines, Crocodylia, Rhynchocephalia. Herpetological Review 14: 23-25) illustrate some of the problems created when subspecies of common caimans and Nile crocodiles are described using commercially-processed skins with no type localities. Fortunately, Freiberg and Carvalho cannot be accused of this sort of error. Instead, Crea et al. show that they simply recognized a non-existent partition of broad-snouted caiman diversity. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. Sergio O. Zunino of the Museo de Historia Natural de Valparaìso for granting permission to publish the English version of this paper.