Otto Argueta

Otto Argueta serves as Citizen Security and Violence Prevention Advisor to the LACLEARN task order. 15 years of academic and applied experience in citizen security, violence prevention, conflict analysis and peacebuilding throughout Latin America have guided his research contributions on police and military reform, gangs, organized crime, drug trafficking, corruption, democratic governance, and authoritarian regimes. As a practitioner in the peacebuilding and violence prevention field, he has mastered navigating complex environments, leading conflict transformation and violence prevention strategies with police, military, and former guerrilla combatants in Colombia as well as gangs and other criminal organizations in Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala. Mr. Argueta has amassed considerable experience leading penitentiary rehabilitation and reinsertion programs. By combining his social research skills and applied experience in conflict, security and violence prevention, Mr. Argueta has designed peace, conflict and violence prevention assessments, trained and led field teams in the application and analysis of said processes. This has enabled him to expertly advise USAID stakeholders on conflict sensitivity and do no harm best practices. Furthermore, Mr. Argueta is a skilled trainer, practitioner and thought-leader on gender-based violence, spearheading research and application of innovate prevention programs with security actors in Colombia, with at risk youth and vulnerable populations in Honduras. Mr. Argueta is historian and holds a PhD in Political Science by the University of Hamburg, Germany.