The support of EL PAcCTO and the commitment of the Bolivian Attorney General’s Office and Police have been fundamental in launching a newSpecialised Multidisciplinary Team(EME), this time for dealing with environmental crime issues.
The State Attorney General, Juan Lanchipa Ponce and the General Commander of the Police, Jhonny Aguilera, participated in the act of constitution of the EME.
“Inter-agency coordination is a fundamental tool in the fight against organised crime. The different institutions that, from their respective competencies, fight against organised crime cannot achieve their objectives if they do not coordinate their efforts and activities. That is the origin of the Specialised Multidisciplinary Team (EME) concept, which is characterised by the creation of organised operational groups that will make it possible to provide a specific and practical response to the challenges posed by organised crime, particularly in terms of the complexity of their international investigations and, therefore, of the need for a high degree of specialisation”, said Lanchipa.
Coordination and exchange of information between institutions
For his part, the General Commander of the Police pointed out that “we have to work on five aspects in the fight against transnational crimes. The first, to raise awareness about land clearance by burning and illegal mining operations; the second, to cooperate and work with institutions of civil society and NGOs, international cooperation; the third, traditional police work; the fourth, transnational investigation and investigation on the borders must be promoted, and; the fifth, chasing down the money”.
FromEL PAcCTO, Marc Reina, expressed that the EMEs are elite units from the Prosecutor’s Office and the Police that fight against environmental crimes. They are innovative and effective tools for fighting organised crime in the country as a whole, and because they can be connected internationally, they support coordination and the exchange of information between institutions and they can produce results in the short, medium and long term, which become consolidated and so build up.
EME against human trafficking
EL PAcCTO has also organised theEME specialisation workshop on human traffickingthat began operating last year in Bolivia. A prosecutor from the Attorney General’s Office of the Republic of Portugal participated in an expert capacity. The activity was aimed at EME members. A team made up of Bolivian police officers and prosecutors belonging to the units specialised in combating human trafficking of both institutions.
Since its creation, the Human Trafficking EME has succeeded in strengthening the capacities of police institutions and the prosecutor’s office in the investigation of cases of human trafficking while facilitating and strengthening inter-agency cooperation mechanisms based on a climate of greater trust.
Members of the Bilateral Project to Support the Strategy to Fight Drug Trafficking – 2021-2023 Bridging Phase that FIIAPP is implementing in Bolivia, have also participated in this workshop. In fact, there is already ample experience of coordination between both Projects in the fight against human trafficking.
This coordination exercise between programmes and projects of the European Union and between European agencies substantially improves the effectiveness of the actions carried out, obtaining better results and providing a better service to the population. In addition, it enables substantial improvements in efficiency in the management of economic resources.
Presentation of the COOPERA-JUS tool
Precisely together with this Programme, the EL PAcCTO team located in Bolivia also presented theCOOPERA-JUS tool to the Bolivian Prosecutor’s Office. COOPERA-JUS is a digital tool designed to facilitate the exchange of judicial information between countries. The objectives pursued with this tool are to facilitate operational work, increase the quantity and quality of international cooperation actions and extend the culture of international legal cooperation among all legal agents.