The Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center hosted two notable private Venezuela-related events in early June: a three-day Strategy Session on Venezuela and a meeting of the Stabilization Leaders Forum (SLF).

The private, off-the-record Strategy Session on Venezuela focused on Venezuela’s citizen and national security challenges and brought together key Venezuelan stakeholders and more than 80 high-level international experts. Frederick Kempe, Special Representative for Venezuela Elliott Abrams and Ambassador of Venezuela to the US Carlos Vecchio gave opening remarks. Board members Robert Gelbard, Frank Kramer and Paula Dobriansky participated in the three-day Strategy Session. The Strategy Session also included a number of high- level representatives from the US government, including representatives from the Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, the Bureau for Western Hemisphere Affairs and the Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the Department of State, as well as representatives from the Department of Justice, Department of Defense, Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

Venezuelan experts presented their diagnosis of the security challenges in Venezuela and had the opportunity to learn from the experiences of other countries in order to inform the security components of Venezuela’s reconstruction project, Plan País.In addition, we hosted a private meeting of the Stabilization Leaders Forum (SLF), which brought together Venezuelan experts and diplomatic representatives from SLF member countries, the Lima Group and the International Contact Group (including Australia, Canada, Denmark, Brazil, Spain, the Netherlands, Chile and Argentina).