The delegates have been meeting in Trinidad, for the Third Meeting of Ministers Responsible for Public Security in the Americas (MISPA III) and have been studying a number of recommendations that they hope could enhance their crime fighting efforts and the level of national security in the region.
Previous meetings have been held in Mexico in 2007 and in the Dominican Republic in 2009.
Representatives of the Member States of the Organization of American States (OAS) are analyzing the hemispheric progress against transnational organized crime.
Attorney General of St. Kitts and Nevis and Minister of Justice and Legal Affairs, Patrice Nisbett and Commissioner of Police, Mr. C. G. Walwyn are representing the twin-island Federation at the meeting which began Thursday in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.
Also, in the midst was the Secretary General of the Organization of American States (OAS), His Excellency José Miguel Insulza and Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister; Kamala Persad-Bissessar, who spoke at the ceremony.
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 supremacy 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 Trinidad and Tobago’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 is 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 established a series of actions to improve cooperation and coordination in preventing, investigating, prosecuting and adopting judicial decisions in relation to this scourge, as well as in the strengthening of the national, sub-regional and regional capabilities of the Member States of the OAS.