14/10/2020
Brazil, Colombia and Mexico, together with the European project EL PAcCTO, are studying the impact of organised crime on indigenous communities
The EL PAcCTO project has a police cooperation component that aims to study the relationship between organised crime and indigenous communities in Latin America. To achieve this objective, several working meetings have been organised with specialists and researchers from Latin America.
Indigenous peoples are part of humanity’s common heritage, they represent a living source of ancestral knowledge and contribute to the diversity and richness of civilisations and cultures. These are compelling reasons to identify the main crimes that affect them and which place them in a vulnerable situation.
Specialists from countries such as Brazil, Colombia and Mexico have been commissioned to analyse the impact of organised crime on these communities in Latin America. Thanks to this analysis, in their fight against criminal groups, police institutions can expand their knowledge. In addition, the work will also facilitate police work in the fight against criminal phenomena such as arms trafficking, cocaine trafficking, illegal mining and species trafficking. Crimes that undoubtedly affect the lives and development of indigenous communities.
The study being carried out in these communities is adopting a gender perspective, which focuses on indigenous women, since they represent an important group in the fight against these criminal groups and should be heard. In addition, it will explore how investigations should be carried out in this region into these crimes, which lead to such a high number of deaths. It also seeks to strengthen cooperation between countries this problem affects.
EL PAcCTO, financed by the European Union and managed by FIIAPP and Expertise France with the support of ILA and Camões will support the countries that participate in this initiative to make progress in identifying problems and in taking steps in legal and policing terms that will help implement policies for the protection and defence of indigenous communities in Latin America.
