Colombia and Brazil strengthen their fight against organized crime and increase citizen security plans.
Bogotá D.C. The Minister of Defense of Colombia, Guillermo Botero, and the minister of Public Security of Brazil, Raúl Belens Jungmann, met on Wednesday to share the experiences and capabilities of Colombia in the fight against transnational organized crime, and also present the model of citizen security to fight crime. They reviewed issues of cooperation and security commitments to strengthen the work of the two countries.
"As strategic partners, Colombia and Brazil have a historical relationship in security and defense, focused on border issues, fight against transnational threats, military and police intelligence, as well as cooperation plans to conserve and protect the natural resources of the Amazonas region," Botero said.
In May 2017, the last meeting of Defense and Security Ministers of Colombia and Brazil was held. In that meeting they approved an annual operation plan to protect the Amazonian natural resources and biodiversity, to fight against organized crime, take care of indigenous affairs, and development of coordinated operations and information exchange.
In February of this year, the Meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defense (2 + 2) Colombia - Brazil was held in Brasilia D.F., in which the commitments established in May 2017 were evaluated.
In the same way, in February 2018, Colombia and Brazil signed the Memorandum of Understanding for cooperation in Humanitarian Demining, which began with the training received by the Military Forces from 15 Brazilian instructors and experts in the removal of antipersonnel mines and improvised explosive devices.
Similarly, Colombia has trained 414 members of the Brazilian Military Forces in citizen security, to fight against organized crime and drug trafficking.
Colombia and Brazil have signed three cooperation instruments: the first, in 1997, was an Agreement on Judicial Cooperation and Mutual Criminal Assistance; the second, was in the same way signed in 1997 and it was an Agreement to prevent the diversion of chemical precursors; and the third, in 2005, was a Memorandum of Understanding on Police Cooperation.
Source: Ministry of National Defense
