In 2021, efforts to combat corruption in Latin America are more necessary than ever. The COVID-19 pandemic is fertile ground for organized crime. Only greater international coordination could alleviate the damage. To this end, Panama City received today (29.06.2021) legislators, officials and experts from different countries within the framework of the 18th Parliamentary Forum on Intelligence and Security.
At the opening held at the headquarters of the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (Parlatino), the Minister of Public Security of Panama, Juan Manuel Pino, stressed the importance of jointly tackling organized crime, establishing comprehensive solutions to curb their criminal activities.
The Minister stated that "criminal organisations do not stop, their actions are detrimental to people's quality of life. We must analyze how and through what joint action we fight these criminals.«.
In that sense, the Alejo Campos, event organizer and Director of Crime Stoppers for Latin America, the Caribbean and Bermuda, he stressed before the regional forum: “We are here to analyze how we have allowed organized crime to become more sophisticated and professional with new technological advances (5G, quantum computing, fintech, cryptocurrencies, e-commerce) to become more powerful, exercise silent control over governments and threaten democracy.”
"This dialogue within Parlatino is vital”, said the Director at the opening of the event and maintained that “Good intentions must be accompanied by modern and harmonized legislation".
Alejo Campos also stated that “The fight against global crime must be done as a whole, with coordination between nations and key actors in all countries at the same time.”
He also invited the Forum's recommendations to be passed on to the parliaments of countries to update or create new laws that serve to prevent crime.
In this context, he explained that “Crime Stoppers, together with Senator Silvia Giacoppo, Alternate Secretary of Parlatino Commissions, began the formulation of a model law against organized crime.o, approved by Parlatino in 2021.
“From the mission of the Forum, We believe that the model law to combat organized crime, together with the laws on cybersecurity and domain extinction, are three legislative instruments that can help harmonize national legislation and be more effective as a block against organized crime.“, emphasized the Director of Crime Stoppers.
domain extinction
Regarding the forfeiture of assets, Alejo Campos referred to the legal framework that allows national authorities to counteract criminal activity in a forceful manner, to dismantle the operational and financial capacity of these organizations, weakening their economic structure.
"The fight against organized crime must be done from its finances, weakening its assets and resources is weakening its operations. That is where we must focus our efforts," he said.
The first day of the forum featured a number of panels, including “AML/CTF Best Practices”, “Trade-Based Money Laundering”, “5G Security Challenges” and “Mitigating Cybersecurity Threats to Defence, Finance and Infrastructure Systems”.
Participants
The event was attended by the President of Parlatino Jorge Pizarro, the President of the Forum Robert Pittenger, the Ambassador of Panama to the United States Juan De Dianous, the President of the National Assembly of Deputies Marcos Castillero, the former Head of Strategy, Electronic Commerce, United States Department of State, Paul Touw, and Erik Bethel, Distinguished Member of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, among other experts.
The Forum will run until Wednesday, June 30, with officials from the OECD, the United States and Argentina, Customs Directors of Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, which will deepen the debate on intelligence and security in Latin America in the face of the actions of transnational organized crime, assuming joint initiatives to confront this scourge.
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