On the heels of the Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America in Miami, the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies and Guatemalan Ministry of Defense convened over sixty defense and security professionals in Antigua, Guatemala for the 2nd Annual Central American Regional Seminar on Countering Transregional-Transnational Threat Networks. Through a series of expert lectures and interactive sessions, seminar participants from Belize, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Panama, Canada, Colombia, Mexico, and the United States examined threats posed by international terrorism, transnational organized crime, cybersecurity and emerging technologies, and discussed strategies and policies to counter these threats in the Americas.

Seminar plenary session

The first day of the seminar featured keynote speeches by Guatemalan Minister of Defense Minister of Defense Williams Agberto Mansilla Fernández and Vice Minister of Government Oscar Miguel Davila Mejicanos who shared Guatemala’s perspective on citizen security in the Americas and by US Southern Command’s Military Deputy Commander LTG Joseph DiSalvo, who spoke about the need to build better friendly networks to counter the transregional-transnational threat networks in the Western Hemisphere. All three keynote speakers emphasized the importance of interagency and international cooperation acknowledged that sustained political will is critical to counter the broad spectrum of security threats to the region. This seminar focused on enhancing citizen security, combating transnational organized crime, promoting regional security cooperation, and strengthening judicial institutions, in support of the security lines of effort of the June 15-16 Conference on Prosperity and Security in Central America.