Non-Subscriber Extract
Policing Latin America
07 January 2008
Led by an initiative from Colombia, police forces from around Latin America and the Caribbean are beginning a new effort to co-operate and share intelligence to combat the globalisation of organised crime, in particular drug trafficking. Yet the absence of some key countries suggests that Ameripol's effectiveness will be hindered from the start.
In late November 2007, police chiefs and commanders from 18 countries in the region met during a week in Bogotà to agree the co-operation statutes of Ameripol, an organisation modelled on Europol, the 15-year-old European police grouping based in The Hague.
Ameripol, whose full name is the Comunidad de Polic’as de Amèrica Latina y el Caribe, was conceived by the Colombian police, in particular its current commander, General Oscar Naranjo, for whom the need for better international co-operation is essential.
Gen Naranjo tells Jane's: "The aim is to contain the tendency towards the globalisation of crime, and in many areas, from precursor chemicals and toxic waste through to drugs trafficking. We will work in three areas: technical and judicial co-operation; strategic and operational intelligence sharing, and criminal and judicial investigation."
At the Bogotà summit, 18 countries signed up for Ameripol: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
Ameripol's birth was given an additional boost by the presence of international observers from outside the region, including Europol's director Max Peter Ratzel, the deputy head of Germany's Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt: BKA) Jurgen Stock, and officials from the United States and Canada.
Crucially, Colombia will play a key role in Ameripol. Gen Naranjo will act as Ameripol's first executive secretary and Bogotà hopes that Colombia's sitting national police commander will hold the secretariat, when chosen every three years, permanently. It also hopes that Ameripol will eventually establish its own headquarters in Bogotà.