UNDCP AND FOUR SOUTH AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS LUANCH FIRST TRAINING PROJECT UNDER 1994 SUBREGIONAL AGREEMENT
Press Release
SOC/NAR/719
UNDCP AND FOUR SOUTH AMERICAN GOVERNMENTS LUANCH FIRST TRAINING PROJECT UNDER 1994 SUBREGIONAL AGREEMENT
19960126 VIENNA, 25 January (UN Information Service) -- Representatives of Argentina, Bolivia, Chile and Peru today launched a training programme designed in collaboration with the United Nations to strengthen drug control expertise in the southern cone subregion of South America.The "Subregional Training Programme on Control of Narcotics and Psychotropic Substances" is the first project established under an agreement signed by the four countries and the United Nations International Drug Control Programme (UNDCP) in April 1994.
The project, which will be carried out by national drug control authorities in the four countries, aims at optimizing existing resources for specialized training in the control of illicit drug trafficking -- the first step towards a permanent training programme, long seen as invaluable in the subregion. Courses for police, narcotics control and anti-money-laundering agents will cover such topics as investigative techniques, precursor control and financial analysis, data correlation and techniques for conducting controlled deliveries. The objective is to achieve a significant increase in drug and precursor seizures within the next two to three years in the countries concerned as well as to strengthen their capacity to combat money laundering.
The project is expected to provide relevant training to several hundred judges, prosecutors, lawyers, police and other civil servants. The Governments of the four countries have agreed to contribute a combined total of $422,212, or almost 50 per cent of the resources required to implement the entire programme. The balance is funded by the UNDCP.
Signing the project agreement in a ceremony at the Vienna International Centre today were Bertrand Juppin de Fondaumière, Deputy Executive Director of UNDCP; Ambassador Andres Pesci Bourel of Argentina; Ambassador Osvaldo Puccio Huidobro of Chile; Ambassador Gilbert Chauny de Porturas Hoyle of Peru; and Maria Estela Mendoza, Chargé d'affairs of Bolivia's Permanent Mission to the United Nations at Vienna.
The subregional initiative is part of UNDCP's ongoing pursuit of regional and subregional approaches to furthering the international community's global strategy against drug abuse and trafficking worldwide. Similar arrangements have been launched in south-east Asia, south-west Asia and, last October, in central Europe.
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