Americas ministers pledge organized crime cooperation

More than 30 countries across North and South America agreed Friday to strengthen joint efforts against organized crime at a defense ministers' summit in Cusco, Peru.

Peru's Defense Ministry said the Cusco Declaration, issued after three days of meetings, set out plans to improve cooperation against “transnational organized crime, terrorism, illicit economies and other emerging threats.”

A US official at the 17th Conference of Defense Ministers of the Americas said Washington would use its influence to clamp down on crime across the region. Pentagon official Elbridge Colby told the summit that countries in the hemisphere were directly affected by each other's security and defense choices.

The Americas has the world's highest homicide rate, at 15 per 100,000 inhabitants, with half linked to organized crime, according to United Nations data.

The declaration also stressed regional cooperation on humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Brazil's government said ministers discussed cyber defense, artificial intelligence, climate change and humanitarian assistance.