EL PAcCTO: presentation of the 2018 Action Plan in December

Identifying needs to define the 2018 Action Plan

A series of missions were conducted between June and November 2017 in the context of the EL PAcCTO programme, financed by the European Commission. The aim was to study and better define the needs of partner Latin American countries in terms of the fight against organised crime.

These missions took place in institutions involved in the fight against organised crime in the relevant countries (Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Panama, Paraguay and Uruguay). They were complemented by meetings with regional and international institutions, such as Ameripol, a regional police cooperation organisation, IberRed, an Ibero-American international judicial cooperation network, GAFILAT, the Financial Action Task Force of Latin America, Interpol, the international police cooperation organisation, the Mercosur economic community, SICA, the regional organisation of Central America, and AIAMP, the Ibero-American Association of Public Prosecutors.

These missions to study and validate the requests made by countries aimed to strengthen the dialogue between the EL PAcCTO teams, the institutional contact points in each country and, in this specific case, the institutions responsible for the operational fight against organised crime.

The objective was to have more detailed knowledge of the country and of each beneficiary institution, in order to be able to precisely define the priority areas of work for each component, in each country and in each cross-cutting area (cybercrime, corruption, human rights, gender and money laundering).

Facilitating exchanges and regional cooperation

To promote exchanges and cooperation at regional level, a meeting between national focal points was held in Costa Rica in July, while the programme’s first regional thematic workshop was held in Quito in October. This workshop devoted to the fight against cybercrime gathered specialists from the region, with the aim of strengthening police and judicial cooperation on the sexual abuse of minors.

The annual Action Plan will be based on all the information compiled during the various missions and will comprise a roadmap for each country. It will also give details of the activities which will be implemented in 2018, with the aim of providing technical assistance to the 18 countries which will be involved in this programme to fight against organised crime.

An official launch event for the programme is scheduled in 2018, in the presence of most of the partner institutions and countries.

El PAcCTO is a programme financed by the European Commission and implemented by Expertise France and FIIAPP, with support from the Istituto Italo-Latino Americano (IILA) and Portuguese Instituto Camões. It mainly aims to fight against organised crime by strengthening the institutions responsible for ensuring the safety of citizens in 18 Latin American countries.