Regional Citizen Security Context and Challenges

Datacción speakers

"I want to thank everyone who joined any one of the eight DatAction episodes this season; the people and institutions who contributed their presentations; the InfoSegura Regional Project team; and, of course, a very special thanks to USAID, our partner and ally implementing this project." With these remarks, Marcela Smutt, InfoSegura Regional Project Coordinator brought to a close the eighth episode of DatAction season six. 

This was also the last episode of the year, before holding the Second Citizen Security Week that will take place in Panama from 14 to 16 November, putting the finishing touch to a season full of experiences and knowledge shared through the webinars organized by InfoSegura. 

On this occasion, the presentation was delivered by Doctor Fernando Carrion, researcher at the Latin American Social Sciences Institute (FLACSO) who spoke about the citizen security context and challenges in the regional. 

During his in-depth intervention, Dr. Carrion stressed that "the big problem" in Latin America today is violence and it has an impact on three aspects: society, because people die by the tens of thousands every year due to violence and organized crime; the economy, because violence is responsible for a 3.5 per cent reduction in the region's Gross Domestic Product; and politics, and he used his own country, Ecuador as an example, naming several politicians who have been murdered so far in 2023. 

The researcher–an architect by profession–emphasized that violence in the Latin American experience is “structural and characteristically urban.” According to Dr. Carrion, the main problem cities face today, "is no longer an issue like mobility, housing or access to water." Instead, it is violence. 

"Latin America is a kind of platform for crime that branches out into the world, primarily on the basis of cocaine," said the Ecuadoran researcher, explaining the concept he has "been working on some time:" the global crime network 

Marcela Smutt finished by emphasizing that country exchanges in the context of DatAction seek to give their take on, "issues of missing persons, social conflict or school violence," reminded viewers of the importance of reinforcing the social architecture in each country, designing and implementing citizen security policies that are evidence-based and people-centred. 

You can watch the full episode again on our YouTube channel or our Facebook page.