Aníbal Fernández strengthens cooperation against drug trafficking and transnational crimes in Europe

Aníbal Fernández speaks at the Council of the European Union in Brussels.

The Minister of National Security, Aníbal Fernández, signed this morning in Brussels, the capital of Belgium, a cooperation agreement between the European Union (EU) and the Latin American Committee for Internal Security (CLASI) – of which Argentina is a part. in which a comprehensive agenda was set for the fight against drug trafficking and other transnational crimes.

“We care about what happens and we care about the relationship with Europe because it can open our eyes, because it can help us think about many things and we can also help them. A lot of drugs that reach these places come from Latin America and all of this, worked accordingly with other countries and with forceful policies, gives us more important answers than we imagine,” said Fernández after the meeting that took place in the Council of the Union. European and which was attended by Ministers of the Interior and Security from Europe and Latin America, grouped in the Latin American Security Committee.

Fernández added: “We have things to do together. From that moment in which we organized the Latin American Committee on Internal Security, we made two monitored deliveries with Spain, with the Spanish Police with excellent results, we have the samples.” The Argentine official led CLASI between March 2022 and 2023 when he handed over the pro tempore Presidency of that organization to Panama.

The “family photo” of the officials who participated in the meeting

The document now agreed in Brussels proposes “to generate a mechanism that allows identifying points of convergence between the security agendas of the countries, in order to find joint solutions.” Last week, Fernández had signed an agreement in the same sense at the Kirchner Cultural Center, for cooperation with the United States government. At that event and with the presence of the Minister of Economy and presidential candidate of Unión por la Patria, Sergio Massa, and the US ambassador in Buenos Aires, Marc Stanley, it was agreed on the need to increase joint work to combat transnational crimes between those mentioned were drug trafficking, money laundering and human trafficking.

“The goal is to professionalize international cooperation to strengthen the security of both regions of the world, especially in crimes that cross national borders,” it was specified on this occasion in Brussels. The text of the agreement highlights support for the institutionalization process of Ameripol (the Police Community of America) to strengthen its role in the fight against organized crime in Latin America.

Ameripol is a hemispheric cooperation mechanism created in 2007, made up of 35 Police or Security Forces from 29 countries, and 30 Observer Organizations. It seeks to be an international reference for hemispheric and global security.

Aníbal Fernández speaks in Brussels

During the ministerial meeting, Fernández – who will return to Buenos Aires this Friday – held bilateral meetings with members of Eurojust, Europol, the European Union Agency for Police Training (CEPOL), with officials from Spain, Belgium and Colombia and also with the General Directorate of International Associations of the European Union (INTPA).

This trip by Aníbal Fernández to Europe is the continuation of the work he undertook together with the representatives of the European Union at the beginning of 2023. In February the minister had signed in France, in the city of Strasbourg, Argentina’s accession to the Second Additional Protocol to the Budapest Convention of the European Union, on cybercrime.

At that time, our country joined an extensive list of nations that had already signed it, such as Germany, Italy, Andorra, Japan, Austria, Lithuania, Belgium, Luxembourg, Bulgaria, Morocco, Chile, North Macedonia, Colombia, Montenegro, Costa Rica, Portugal, Croatia, United Kingdom, United States, Dominican Republic, Spain, Moldova, Slovenia, Romania, Estonia, Serbia, Finland, Sri Lanka, France, Sweden, Greece, Ukraine, Netherlands and Iceland.

2023-09-28 17:44:08


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