Perry Center Professors Dr. Boris Saavedra and Celina Realuyo participated in an international seminar titled, “From Terrorist Insurgency to Transnational Organized Crime” hosted by Colombia’s Regional Center for Strategic Studies in Security (CREES, by its acronym in Spanish and Joint Special Operations University (JSOU) from 8-10 March 2016 in Bogotá, Colombia. Colombian Minister of Defense Luis Carlos Villegas Echeverri opened the seminar stating that the security forces (military and police of Colombia) need to be ready to confront new manifestations of crime and noted that until there is a total demobilization, these threats will not all disappear. He added that Colombia has a strong record of defeating the drug cartels, but now it is experiencing a different kind of transnational organized crime that will require more international cooperation.

Over 350 military, police, and civilian security professionals from Colombia and 18 other Latin American countries attended the three-day seminar that examined armed conflict in Colombia, terrorism, transnational organized crime, gang violence and citizen insecurity in Central America, and human trafficking. At the seminar, Dr. Saavedra spoke on the transition and role of the military and police in post-conflict situations like in Central America, and Professor Realuyo presented on the convergence of terrorism and crime in the case of ISIL and on the US Strategy to Combat Transnational Organized Crime.