FESEM–INTERPOL: Logistics Security Is No Longer Invisible

For decades, logistics security lived at the margins of international trade. It was a technical, discreet topic handled by specialists working far from the spotlight to keep one of the world’s most complex systems running: the supply chain. Their contribution was vital, yet their visibility minimal. However, the environment evolved faster than prevention models.

The growth of foreign trade, the sophistication of organized crime, infrastructure saturation, geopolitical volatility, and the acceleration of nearshoring have turned logistics security into a central pillar of economic stability and regional competitiveness. What was once considered an operational detail has become a component of governance.

To speak of logistics in Mexico is to speak of a system that never stops, yet faces mounting pressure: vulnerable highways, saturated ports, strategic corridors captured by criminal groups, extreme weather events, and global commercial tensions. Mexican logistics moves goods, yes, but also jobs, investments, contractual commitments, and the country’s reputation as an industrial platform.

In this context, the conversation about logistics security can no longer remain marginal. It is a strategic imperative.

A Historic Breakthrough: The Insurance Ecosystem Steps Into the Spotlight

At this inflection point, an unprecedented development emerges: for the first time, the insurance ecosystem forms part of the VIII International Edition of the Security Tool for Supply Chain Actors, developed by the Business Security Front (FESEM) of the Criminal Investigation Directorate and INTERPOL (DIJIN) of the National Police of Colombia.

Presented in Bogotá during the 21st FESEM Meeting, the tool incorporates an entire, formal and technical chapter dedicated to cargo insurance and prevention: “Logistics Security and Crime Prevention: The Role of Risk Management and Cargo Insurance as Tools for Business Resilience.”

This is not a ceremonial gesture. It is a clear institutional signal: Logistics security cannot be sustained without risk management. Resilience cannot exist without insurance. Continuity depends on integrating intelligence, prevention, and risk transfer.

For the first time, the insurance sector ceases to be the silent participant who arrives after a loss and becomes a structural component of Latin America’s preventive model. This is the true turning point.

The Trident: The Only Viable Architecture in the Face of Insecurity

The breakthrough is not only the inclusion of the insurance sector in a technical document, but what it represents: the birth of a new operational pattern based on tripartite co-responsibility.

Public Sector: Enforces the law, investigates crime, generates intelligence, and safeguards order.

Private Sector: Implements controls, certifications, traceability, operational standards, and a culture of prevention.

Insurance Ecosystem: Manages risk, eliminates asymmetries, provides financial stability to companies, and transforms critical events into operational continuity.

These three components, which once operated in parallel, now emerge as an inseparable trident: the only viable architecture to confront the growing threat to the supply chain.

What was previously addressed in fragments must now be addressed integrally. The FESEM–INTERPOL guide not only states this, it formalizes it.

When Risk Stops Being Theory and Becomes History

Logistics insecurity is not analyzed in the abstract. It is measured in real losses, disruptions, criminal patterns, cargo that never arrives, and companies whose operations are compromised.

Loss statistics speak for themselves.

According to consolidated data from ALSUM (Asociación Latinoamericana de Suscriptores Marítimos), between 2010 and 2024 the Mexican insurance sector accumulated more than US$4.008 billion in cargo insurance losses. It is a 15-year radiography in which risk stopped being a probability and became a statistical reality.

Year-over-year figures do more than show variations; they tell a story:

·       2010: US$194,128,196 

·       2011: US$197,115,116 +1.54% vs 2010

·       2012: US$231,415,729 +17.38% vs 2011

·       2013: US$210,708,865 –8.96% vs 2012

·       2014: US$199,069,926 –5.52% vs 2013

·       2015: US$376,909,324 +89.25% vs 2014 (first major breaking point)

·       2016: US$215,333,751 –42.86% vs 2015

·       2017: US$299,480,337 +39.05% vs 2016

·       2018: US$316,209,761 +5.59% vs 2017

·       2019: US$352,992,971 +11.62% vs 2018

·       2020: US$ 69,311,450 –80.37% vs 2019 (pandemic effect)

·       2021: US$256,889,123 +270.62% vs 2020 (criminal reconfiguration)

·       2022: US$314,462,770 +22.39% vs 2021

·       2023: US$368,689,220 +17.23% vs 2022

·       2024: US$405,970,333 +10.12% vs 2024

The interpretation is unequivocal: Mexico’s logistics chain is riskier today than it was 15 years ago. Not based on perception, but on evidence.

And in this environment, the insurance sector has served as the containment network preventing thousands of companies from becoming paralyzed — or disappearing — after a major loss.

The FESEM – DIJIN INTERPOL Security Tool: Best Practices for a New Era of Resilience

Competitiveness = Production + Innovation + Protection

One of the strongest messages emerging from the FESEM Meeting in Bogotá is that competitiveness does not depend solely on producing more or innovating more. That view is incomplete. Sustainable competitiveness depends on protecting what has already been built.

This means recognizing that:

A country cannot compete if it loses part of its cargo in transit.
A company cannot grow if it is constantly repairing disruptions.
A supply chain cannot be reliable if its security depends on chance.
And a region cannot attract investment if its logistics represent an operational risk.

The proposed triad — private sector, public sector, and the insurance ecosystem — forms what could be called the trident of logistics security.

Each component is indispensable.
Each one reinforces the others.
Each fulfills its own function within a shared mechanism.

A Conceptual Step Forward, Not Just Technical

The main contribution of the VIII Edition is not merely technical, but conceptual.
For the first time, it defines a framework in which logistics security is understood as an integrated, coordinated, intelligence-based practice.

The guide sets out:

• Standards and best practices

• Criminal prevention principles

• Roles and responsibilities

• Coordination protocols

• Investigation criteria

• Recovery mechanisms

• And, for the first time, the strategic role of cargo insurance

The guide does not aim to be just another manual. It is a Latin American platform of best practices — an operational roadmap that guides governments, companies, logistics operators, and insurers toward a single horizon: building supply chains that are safer, better coordinated, and more resilient.

Its value lies not only in what it prescribes, but in what it aligns: a shared vision.

What Was Once Invisible Is Now Institutional

For decades, insurance was seen simply as a financial instrument activated after a loss. This guide completely reshapes that narrative.

It recognizes that:

• Insurance generates operational intelligence.

• Claims adjusting produces technical truth that helps prevent future events.

• Subrogation restores accountability and order within the chain.

• Risk management is a tool of governance, not an administrative formality.

The message is clear: logistics security does not depend solely on law enforcement or private operations. It requires a third pillar, always present but rarely acknowledged: insurance expertise.

This institutional recognition was necessary. Today, it is a reality.

Foreign Trade Does Not Only Move Goods, It Moves the Future

Every shipment carries more than merchandise. It carries investments, contracts, jobs, reputation, and the trust that sustains international trade.

When a loss occurs, it is not only the cargo that disappears — the future is fractured as well.

For this reason, the phrase that closed the FESEM Meeting in Bogotá captures — with almost poetic precision — the spirit of this new stage: “One journey, one destination: security.”

We are all on board.

Whether from the bridge of a ship sailing through uncertain seas, the cabin of a train crossing complex geographies, the serene altitude of an aircraft, or the endless roads traveled by a long-haul truck, we all advance toward the same horizon: protecting what moves the world. 

Consult the VIII Edition of the Security Tool for Actors of the Logistics Chain 2025 (FESEM–DIJIN): https://heyzine.com/flip-book/4f91881047.html

About the author

Esaú M. Mendoza Hernández, Director of Business Development at Keeper Cargo Insurance, is a specialist in cargo insurance and risk management for supply chains and international logistics. He collaborates with the private and public sectors, as well as academia. A lawyer specialized in corporate law, he holds international certifications in cargo underwriting and claims. He is also an international speaker and co-author of multiple publications on insurance, logistics, and cargo transportation.