This is a recipe for chaos, unless the goodly senor is prepared to cede some of his authority to the "Little Magician."
An assistant coach is just that, an assistant, someone who is part of the decision-making process as far as team strategy is concerned. But at the end of the day, it is the head coach who has the final say and the assistant who facilitates the implementation of the top man's directives. So what is Latapy to do if he disagrees fundamentally with Maturana's strategy? Does he engineer a backroom mutiny or revamp the game plan on his own when he takes the field?
If the Colombian doesn't interpret this latest development as undermining his authority, then he's really in it for the money and could care less about his own professional integrity, for no self-respecting head coach would accept a situation like this.
Indeed, if this is just the first step in elevating Latapy to the position of senior national team head coach in the long term, then the Trinidad and Tobago Football Federation, or more precisely special adviser Jack Warner, should get it over with one time by firing Maturana and installing the ever-popular midfield maestro at the helm.
But is it? We are told that Latapy's appointment, in the first instance, is for the CONCACAF semi-final round qualifiers against Guatemala in Guatemala City on October 11 and then at home to the United States at the Hasely Crawford Stadium four days later.
In other words, if he can keep our hopes of a top-two finish in Group A alive following those two fixtures, then the parties will sit down and negotiate terms for him to stay on until the final game of this round against Cuba on November 19.
If, however, we lose both games and have no realistic chance of catching the Americans and Guatemalans, then I'm sure it will be considered pointless for Latapy to be retained for the last game, unless the intention then is to turn the fixture into a sentiment-laden farewell for one of the most gifted and popular footballers to have ever worn our national colours.
And this is why we're going about this campaign in the same erratic, vaille-qui-vaille sort of way that leaves you to wonder if we've really learnt anything from what has gone before.
Maturana's doomed defensive strategy against the United States in Bridgeview, Illinois, two weeks ago would have been good enough reason to show him the door. But let's assume that he has the support of the players. Let's assume that he has made such a positive difference to the entire team ethos that the decision-makers are prepared to give him more than a fair chance to redeem himself.
Would he still not look upon the appointment of Latapy as an attempt to undermine his authority, regardless of what positives and imaginative perspectives the Scotland-based player may bring to the World Cup qualifying effort?
Let's just step back a bit and assess whether our football has made any real progress since the Germany '06 experience, given that we apparently remain so heavily reliant on the experience and acumen of 36-year-old Dwight Yorke and 40-year-old Latapy.
This is not a facile attempt to diss two of our greatest-ever players and send them packing unceremoniously, but it cannot be healthy that a country which boasts of having a strong footballing tradition invariably looks to the same two players who now have a combined age of 76 to pull them out of a hole every four years.
At the other end of the Caribbean chain of islands, Jamaica have gone the way of replacing head coach Rene Simoes with John Barnes, although the Jamaican-born former England international will not take up the post until November. In the interim, one of the country's most popular former players, Theodore Whitmore, has been charged with the onerous task of lifting the team from the foot of the standings in Group C, although the Jamaicans do have the advantage of playing their last three games against Canada, Mexico and Honduras all at home at the National Stadium in Kingston.
It's not that we necessarily have to go the way of firing people left and right. But when it comes to the critical moments, decisive action is needed. Battling with Sunderland manager Roy Keane for the services of the previously retired Yorke and persuading the aging Latapy to lend his technical and tactical ability to the cause, if only for two games, doesn't sound anything like a solid strategy or effective forward planning.
And we haven't taken into consideration yet as to what this means for Anton Corneal and his place in the senior technical staff as assistant coach.
Has he been booted out, or will there now be two assistants? If this is beginning to sound confusing, it's only because it is, so just imagine how it must be for the players as they wait to see how it all works out at practice.
He may be the "Little Magician", but Latapy won't have much coaching influence if Maturana is still waving the wand.