In his closing remarks President Berger expressed that, "for Guatemala, it was an honor to be designated as the site for this Sub-Regional Conference, in which the challenges that the region faces and the new transnational threats were analyzed in depth."

Berger reiterated that, "thanks to the presence and participation of all, there is a very clear message that only together are we going to be able to face those great challenges, and that if we are united we will be able to overcome them and to offer, in this case, security, defense and integration to all the citizens of the countries that participate today."

CHDS Director Richard D. Downie declared in the closing ceremony that: "the objective of this conference has been to give proposals to fortify the processes of integration and cooperation of security in the Mesoamerican Region. We understand that already many international and regional agreements and other normative instruments exist. The challenge is to establish and to fortify institutions and to foment operative procedures for a more effective coordination."

Among the panelists were experts such as Admiral Conrado Aparicio (México); Roberto Cajina (Nicaragua); Leon Charles (Haiti); Ambassador Gabriel Gaspar (Chile); Ambassador Ernesto López (Argentina); Gabriel Peralta Peralta (Guatemala); Héctor Rosada-Granados (Guatemala); Cesar Sereseres (USA), Alicia Sorroza (Spain), and others.

The more than 120 participants from Central America, Mexico, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti included civilian employees in the security and defense sectors, university professors, students from defense academies, as well as former fellows of CHDS and of the Inter-American Defense College.

Within processes already underway to formulate a Regional Security Strategy, there is also a need to monitor the results that are achieved, Downie noted, an effort which CHDS is committed to support academically.