Media Center

Press Release

OAS Analyzed Hemispheric Progress against Transnational Organized Crime in the Framework of MISPA

Representatives of the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS) today analyzed the hemispheric progress against transnational organized crime in a meeting held in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in the framework of the Third Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA III), held in Port-of-Spain tomorrow and Friday.

At the inauguration of the Third Meeting of the OAS Technical Group on Transnational Organized Crime, the Secretary for Multidimensional Security of the Hemispheric Organization, Adam Blackwell, said that international crime "is everyone’s problem, it occurs in developed and developing countries where poverty, inequality, social and political exclusion and governance challenges are both causes and consequences of the problem." "The effect on countries and within countries is different and is usually at its most extreme near corridors of illegal activity and marginalized urban areas," he added.

The Permanent Secretary of the host country's Ministry of National Security, Jennifer Boucaud-Blake, said that “as a key member of this Working Group, the Government of Trinidad and Tobago has fully committed itself to taking the necessary steps towards adopting a comprehensive approach to preventing and tackling transnational organized crime with the participation of all stakeholder institutions.”

The forum will be attended by Marc Gorelick, Advisor for Border Security and Cross Border Crime of the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement at the US Department of State; Antonio L. Mazzitelli, Representative of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) for Mexico, Central America and the Caribbean; and Judge Marco Alma, Advisor to the Italian Foreign Ministry on transnational organized crime.

The debates at the meeting centered on the threat of cross-border crime from a multidimensional perspective, and on promoting the integral implementation of the Hemispheric Plan of Action against this type of crime. The Plan was approved by the OAS Permanent Council in October 2006 and establishes a series of actions to improve cooperation and coordination in preventing, investigating, prosecuting and adopting judicial decisions related to this scourge, as well as in the strengthening of the national, sub-regional and regional capabilities of the Member States of the OAS.

The meeting was presided by Stephen Sookram, representative of the Ministry of National Security of Trinidad and Tobago, with Max Campos, from Ecuador's Ministry of Security, as Vice Chair. The third MISPA, which begins tomorrow, seeks to debate and offer recommendations on the situation of police management in the hemisphere, a fundamental issue to make progress towards the achievement of improved security conditions for citizens in the Americas. Previous meetings were held in Mexico in 2007 and in Dominican Republic in 2009.

A gallery of photos of the event will be available here.

For more information, please visit the OAS Website at www.oas.org.

Reference: E-961/11