Not exactly.  Some chefs use them as substitutes, and they do look and taste somewhat similar, but they aren’t the exact same variety.

Yellow caribe chilies have the potential to be significantly hotter.  They’re generally given a scoville heat rating somewhere around 5,000-15,000, whereas many sources list Sante Fe Grandes at about 5,000-8,000 (to compare them to other chilies, check out our chile heat scale).  Thus, while a mild Caribe would be roughly equivalent to a Sante Fe Grande,  a hot Caribe chile could be almost twice as spicy.

- Question submitted by Dan