The Police Community of the Americas or  AMERIPOL held its twelfth summit in collaboration with EL PAcCTO:Support to AMERIPOL. Among the participants were key police institutions in Latin America and Europe who attended via 120 connections in 23 countries.

These summits are annual meetings where the board of directors makes important decisions for AMERIPOL and the most senior members – namely the Presidency and the Executive Secretariat – of this cooperation mechanism present the management report.

The 22nd Summit was opened by the Vice Minister of Public Security of Argentina, Mr Eduardo Villalba, the president of AMERIPOL, Andrés Severino, the director of the Argentine Gendarmerie, the executive secretary of AMERIPOL, and the general director of the Federal Police of Brazil. During their opening remarks they highlighted that it is important for AMERIPOL to grow and establish specialised centres to tackleserious transnational crimes such as cybercrime, human trafficking and terrorism.

At the summit, which featured high-level panellists from international partner entities, the future of AMERIPOL as a key actor in international police cooperation at regional and international levels was among the relevant issues presented.

Some of the main topics discussed were the presentation of the new European Centre for Financial and Economic Crimes (EFECC) of EUROPOL; the importance of Cybercrime Centres in the policing world; the urgent need to establish the Centre against Cybercrime in AMERIPOL and the importance of a global response from police cooperation entities in the context of the current health crisis. They also analysed the progress made in the institutionalisation process and presented the roadmap for the AMERIPOL Constitutional Treaty, as well as the strategic importance of the Enhanced Police Cooperation Agreement against Transnational Organised Crime.

During the closing ceremony, Jolita Butkeviciene, the Director for Latin America and the Caribbean of the Directorate General for Cooperation and Development of the European Commission ( DEVCO ), and the Deputy Director for America of the European External Action Service (EEAS), Javier Niño Pérez, ratified the continued support of the European Union to AMERIPOL and the Latin American region in the field of security. They also pointed out the opportunities offered by international cooperation and highlighted the importance of coordination with initiatives that are carried out with cooperation programs such as EL PAcCTO .