IMET funding for Latin America was used to send students to approximately 150 U.S. military training institutions throughout the United States. A wide variety of courses for U.S. personnel – some 2,000, including topics ranging from counterintelligence to helicopter repair to military justice systems – qualify for IMET funding. On occasion, IMET-funded programs are conducted in the recipient country by mobile education and training teams, U.S. instructors who go to foreign countries to teach courses to groups of students in their native language.

Created in 1976, IMET is often considered to be the "traditional" U.S. military training program. Funded though the foreign aid appropriations process, IMET is overseen by the State Department and implemented by the Defense Department.

In 1998, about 30 percent of IMET funding in Latin America went to "expanded IMET" (E-IMET). A subset of IMET, E-IMET funds non-combat courses that are available to some foreign civilians as well as to military personnel. Among Latin American countries (other than Cuba), only Guatemala faces restrictions on its IMET participation. Guatemalan military personnel can only receive courses that qualify for E-IMET. The Bush Administration is seeking to undo this restriction.

IMET to several Latin American countries has been frozen by the American Servicemembers' Protection Act.

According to Section 541 of the FAA, IMET-funded training is intended:

• To encourage effective and mutually beneficial relations and increased understanding between the United States and foreign countries in furtherance of the goals of international peace and security;
• To improve the ability of participating foreign countries to utilize their resources, including defense articles and defense services obtained by them from the United States, with maximum effectiveness, thereby contributing to greater self-reliance by such countries; and
• To increase the awareness of nationals of foreign countries participating in such activities of basic issues involving internationally recognized human rights.

Due to concerns about the military's involvement in several human rights abuses, Guatemala has not received regular IMET since 1995. Annual Foreign Operations Appropriations laws limit Guatemala to Expanded IMET only.