While governments are busy fighting the pandemic and economic woes, organized crime has found novel ways to thrive and expand operations across the continent, especially in areas such as cybercrime, money laundering, quantum computing, and piracy, among others. To analyze how countries can prevent gangs from continuing to traffic freely, the 18th Regional Parliamentary Forum on Intelligence and Security on June 29 and 30, 2021, in Panama.
“The meeting's motto will be to point out the facts that occur with organized crime and expose the tools they use for their activity such as 5G, blockchain, cryptocurrencies and fintech,” said the Director of Crime Stoppers for the Caribbean, Bermuda and Latin America and organizer of the event, Alejo Campos"The key is to know things before they start to happen. That is why it is important to legislate in a predictive manner," he warned.
Officials from the United States will participate and Financial Information Units from South American countries, Customs Directors of Panama, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Honduras, the Executive Secretary of the Caribbean Customs and Law Enforcement Council. In addition, private actors and experts in new technologies. The dialogues will be transmitted by streaming de Tupista.org, Parlatino.org y Pi-sf.com, whose contents will be shared on the YouTube channel, as well as on social networks.
The regional forum is supported by the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament. And also, with the accompaniment of the Government of Panama y Crime Stoppers International.
The first day will be on Tuesday, June 29th starting at 9:30 (Panama time). There will be a keynote address from U.S. Senators Bill Cassidy and Marco Rubio and a presentation on “Central Bank Digital Currencies.” Additionally, four panels will be held on “AML/CTF Best Practices,” “Trade-Based Money Laundering,” “5G Security Challenges,” and “Mitigating Cybersecurity Threats to Defense, Finance, and Infrastructure Systems.”
At the same time, the second day will have sessions throughout the day. On the panel on «Domain forfeiture to combat transnational crime» The event will be attended by Panama's Minister of Public Security Juan Manuel Pino, former Minister of Justice and Human Rights of Argentina Germán Garavano, Regional Director of Crime Stoppers Alejo Campos, Argentine Deputy Luis Petri, and Justice Advisor of the United States Embassy in Panama Armando Padilla.
Another panel will be “PARLATINO – Model Law to Combat Illicit Trade and Transnational Organized Crime”. Senator Silvia Giacoppo (Alternate Secretary of the PARLATINO Committees), Werner Ovalle (Customs Superintendent of Guatemala and Regional Vice President of the World Customs Organization for the Americas and the Caribbean), Albert Sandy (Executive Secretary of the Customs and Law Enforcement Council of the Caribbean) and Juan Carlos Buitrago (former Chief of the Economic and Financial Police) will participate.
It will also be discussed on the panel “Free trade zones and transnational crime”, whose participants will be the General Manager of the Colon Free Zone Giovanni Ferrari, the Director of Public Governance of the OECD Piotr Stryszowski and Juan José Vides, Director of Customs of Honduras.
The last topic will focus on «Regional Security Perspectives»; the speakers will be Michael Chen (Vice President of the Chamber of Commerce of Colón), Mauricio Vieira (Head of the Chair of Fight against Illicit Trade and Prevention of Transnational Organized Crime at the United Nations University for Peace) and Elías Castillo (Executive Secretary of PARLATINO).
The “Final Remarks” will be led by Robert Pittenger, President of the Parliamentary Forum on Intelligence and Security, and Alejo Campos, Regional Director of Crime Stoppers.
Why is it important to participate?
In dialogue with Customs News, Alejo Campos pointed out that “participation in the Regional Parliamentary Forum on Intelligence and Security is important. Policy makers need to have up-to-date information on the region in order to make decisions that benefit human development. Citizens also need to have the opportunity to generate a critical analysis and make responsible demands on their governments.” In this regard, the expert warned that the events caused by organized crime require special attention due to their seriousness.
Date: June 29-30, 2021
Place: Panama
Web Site: https://panama.tupista.org/
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