23/01/2020
“Specialised cooperation networks involving both police and prosecutors aim to further consolidate this year”
“Specialised cooperation networks involving both police and prosecutors aim to further consolidate this year”
FIIAPP, together with Expertise France, manages El PAcCTO, a cooperation programme aimed at combating organised crime in Latin America. In the words of its co-director, Juan Gama, the programme, which began in 2017, faces its third year of activities “as the strategic turning point for the entire programme”. According to Gama, this is a key moment for major international activities in Latin America and for undertakings with the European Union. In this period, the specialised cooperation networks of both police and prosecutors are seeking further consolidation, counting on, as they do, with the collaboration of Ameripol, Europol, the Ibero-American Association of Public Ministries (AIAMP) and Eurojust‘.
El PAcCTO works to accompany institutions in the fight against the sexual abuse of minors (including the dissemination of material online), money laundering, corruption, environmental crime, smuggling and human trafficking, cybercrime (with special emphasis on the criminal use of cryptocurrencies), arms trafficking and the seizure of criminal benefits from crime. “Likewise, cooperation between prisons in the region, which did not exist before, is reinforced, along with alternative measures to the deprivation of liberty are promoted in coordination with prison intelligence against organised crime,” explains Gama.
The programme co-director also highlights the beginning of a political security cycle in Latin America, similar to that of the European Union, by way of evaluating the threat of organised crime and setting up a security committee for decision-making on public policies in this regard: Instrument to Document and Study the Threat in Latin America (IDEAL) and the Latin American Committee on Internal Security (CLASI). Both will be coordinated with European Union counterparts, with formal meetings to be held at Europol and in Brussels.
Moreover, this year, a meeting between the justice institutions from both regions will be held for the first time: the Conference of Ministers for Justice of the Ibero-American Countries, the AIAMP and the Ibero-American Judicial Summit with DG JUST, Eurojust and the European Network of Councils for the Judiciary. According to Gama, “each event represents a historic milestone”.
