On Thursday, July 15, 2021, the Perry Center hosted a webinar titled “Non-State Armed Groups in the Caribbean.” Two Perry Center alumni, Mr. Michael Bejos, Senior Officer of the Department against Transnational Organized Crime at the Organization of American States (OAS), and Mr. Jason Francis, Senior Policy Advisor at the United Nations Regional Center for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean, were the invited panelists. Perry Center Professor Dr. Patrick Paterson introduced the speakers and moderated the panel.

Mr. Bejos spoke about the myriad security challenges faced by Caribbean nations including drug, arms, and human trafficking. He also identified a number of structural weaknesses in many of the Caribbean nation governments that exacerbate the existing security challenges: limited capacity of government institutions, Covid-19, and climate change, to name just a few of the mentioned issues.

Mr. Francis, an expert on arms trafficking, spoke about the Caribbean Firearms Roadmap recently developed by his organization. In particular, he emphasized the success that firearms tracing has had in providing intelligence on arms trafficking in the region.