FGV CCAS participates in international meeting on conflict and organized crime in Colombia

On January 31st and February 1st, the Ideas for Peace Foundation (FIP), in partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC), held the International Meeting on Conflict and Organized Crime in Bogotá, Colombia. During the two days, 30 experts from different countries gathered to share national and international analyzes and perspectives on organized crime and ways to contain it. 

Among the participants were government representatives, congressmen, members of the judiciary, the National Police, academics and international cooperation. Joana Monteiro, coordinator of the Center for Science Applied to Public Security at Fundação Getulio Vargas (FGV CCAS), was one of the invited experts and was part of the panel at the event's first workshop. 

In total, four workshops were held over the two days, each with the aim of drawing lessons learned and conclusions about the way organized crime has been faced in Colombia and around the world. According to the organization, the objective was to dialogue and propose fundamental lines of analysis and public policies that contribute to the dismantling and containment of different expressions of violence and organized crime. 

“The richness of this interdisciplinary conversation, including the comparative perspective, was very important for establishing research and public policy agendas in the coming years,” she shared. 

As a result, the organization can share lessons and conclusions drawn from the meeting, the main ones being: 

1. The Political Dimension of Organized Crime. The relationship between organized crime and the functioning of the State, including variables such as corruption. 
2. The role of the use of violence. How the learning processes of these groups lead to control of illicit markets through other violent means, in addition to lethal violence. 
3. There is a limit to the economic incentives to subjugate and dismantle, which is generally the magnitude of illicit economies. Therefore, these incentives should also aim at deterrence by other means. 
4. Knowing armed groups means analyzing their trajectory. This provides clarity about your objectives and your way of operating, fundamental information when subduing or dismantling. 
5. The importance of criminal governance and territorial control. These are two of the pillars on which the power of criminal structures rests and on which we must think about ways for the State to compete in this area. 
6. Negotiating with organized crime is possible, but under a common criminal justice system that has two very clear components: the incentives and the objectives of that negotiation. 
7. The cultural dimension of power. Among the elements of power that sustain these groups is the rooting of these figures in the local sphere. 
8. Is it really possible to crack down on organized crime? Armed conflict is a phenomenon with a beginning and an end, unlike organized crime, which adapts and we cannot hope to put an end to it. As there is no concrete end in sight for the expressions of organized crime, measures must be implemented to find "tolerable margins" for action. 
9. The feeling of security and trust in the processes. Strategies must not only aim to encourage criminal structures, but also have a good image in the eyes of communities. This is achieved through territorial transformation approaches. Therefore, it is essential that the scope of the action materializes within the institutionality, but also externally, hand in hand with community leaders. 
10. Give new meaning to the place of victims. Any approach to containing and negotiating organized crime must begin with the victims and the measures of truth and reparation that are expected in light of the magnitude of the damage.