April 12-13, 2018, Perry Center professors Boris Saavedra and Celina Realuyo participated in the two-day forum “Emerging Threats and Hemispheric Security” in Guadalajara, Mexico. The event was organized by Jalisco College, the District Attorney’s Office of Jalisco, and the Center for Economic and Administrative Sciences (CUCEA) at the University of Jalisco. The first day of the forum was held at Jalisco College and was inaugurated by Dr. Dante Jaime Haro Reyes, Human Rights Prosecutor; Dr. Javier Hurtado González, President of Jalisco College; and Kara O’Ryan, Head of the Perry Center Alumni and Educational Outreach Office.

Professor Celina Realuyo opened the forum with a lecture about organized crime and terrorism. Realuyo’s lecture was followed by a panel on security, governance and organized crime that included a presentation by alumnus and 2017 Perry Award recipient Dr. Marcos Pablo Moloeznik, professor at the UDG Center of Social Sciences and Humanities. A second panel comprised of graduates Jairo Cáceres of the Colombian War College and Édgar Espinoza, professor of national security at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, discussed the strategic implications of cybersecurity. Professor Boris Saavedra closed the first day of the forum with a lecture on cybersecurity challenges and the evolution of cybercrime.

The forum was attended by 110 representatives from the Metropolitan Police, Federal Police, State Prosecutor’s Office, Judicial Branch, and academics and students from Jalisco College and the College of Free University Studies’ Criminology Department.

The second day of the event was held at the University of Guadalajara’s Center for Economic and Administrative Sciences (CUCEA). Dr. Dante Jaime Haro Reyes, Human Rights Prosecutor; Jeff Cernyar of the US Consulate in Guadalajara’s Political Affairs Office; José Alberto Castellanos Gutiérrez, Rector of CUCEA; and Kara O’Ryan, Head of the Perry Center Alumni and Educational Outreach Office, delivered welcoming remarks.

In addition to presentations by Professors Celina Realuyo and Boris Saavedra, Édgar Espinoza, and Jairo Cáceres, Perry Center graduates Arturo Villarreal Palos, UDG professor; Dr. Ramón Navejas Padilla, Marista University professor; and Javier Carrasco Rueda, Technical Secretary for the Public Security Council, participated as subject matter experts for the second day’s panel on security, governance and organized crime in Mexico.

115 participants from the military, the Public Security Commission, the Federal Police, state prosecutor’s offices, municipal commissioners and local universities attended the final day of the forum.