Regional focus

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Many of the problems that countries face are transnational in nature, as is the case with drugs trafficking and associated crimes. For this reason, programmes such as COPOLAD III use a regional approach that allows for common responses to shared problems and for connecting the institutions of the affected countries.

COPOLAD III regional actions are structured mainly through joint work with supranational organisations and networks of public institutions and civil society, which group together prosecutors’ offices (AIAMP), ministries of justice (COMJIB), public defenders’ offices (AIDEF), financial intelligence units against money laundering (GAFILAT and GAFIC), security (CARICOM-IMPACS) or attention to vulnerable populations (RIOD, RAISSS).

The alliance with these entities offers multiple advantages: it generates greater action appropriation and sustainability; it enables economies of scale, it allows greater capacity to influence the regional and international agenda; and, finally, the peer exchange is a stimulus for change.

COPOLAD works with these entities through support paths, with the aim of generating and implementing standards, recommendations or protocols aimed at improving aspects of common interest. In a second stage, the Programme supports their agreed implementation at the national level.

The topics covered include non-custodial penalties, financial and asset investigations, improved care in communities with high social vulnerability and the use of special investigation techniques.

How do we support Latin America and the Caribbean from COPOLAD III?

Drug demand reduction

Proportionality and Criminal AlternatIvIty

Training to 17 countries on the Community Treatment Model under the ECO-2 methodology led by the American Network of Intervention Organisations in Situations of Social Suffering (RAISSS) for technical staff of public institutions and civil society.
Guide of Good Practices and Models of Intervention in Latin America, the Caribbean and the European Union in terms of tackling social vulnerabilities linked to drugs, in collaboration with the Ibero-American Network of NGOs working on Drugs and Addictions (RIOD).
Support to 14 projects in 12 countries in the region.
14 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have produced a policy position paper on stigma and drugs.

Collaboration with the Inter-American Association of Public Defenders (AIDEF) for the elaboration and approval of a document of recommendations and practices for the public legal defence of women criminalised for minor drug offences.
Regional pact for a criminal policy on drugs based on proportionality and criminal alternatives, jointly promoted by COPOLAD III and the Conference of Ministers of Justice of Ibero-American States (COMJIB).

Reducing the demand for drugs

Alternative Development

Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago

1 policy paper on stigma and drugs as a reference for addressing this phenomenon in policies, actions and strategies for the comprehensive care and treatment of women and other vulnerable groups who use drugs.
Compilation of background information on the situation in the countries involved, identification of good practices and exchange of experiences among participating institutions.

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

2 regional forums where good practices and lessons learned from Alternative Development initiatives in non-traditional contexts have been exchanged. St. Vincent has shared lessons learned from its public programme of industrial cultivation of medical cannabis. The country’s Cannabis Medicinal Authority (CMA) has learned from the experiences of cannabis legalisation in Uruguay and Jamaica, as well as from Paraguay’s model of industrial hemp cultivation based on small producers.

Control of chemical precursors

Strenghtening of the National Drug Observatories

Jamaica, Suriname, Dominican Republic and Trinidad & Tobago

1 national research network in each country led by its National Drug Observatory following the mapping of human, financial and institutional resources.
1 Scientific Committee on Drugs in each country to systematically advise each observatory.
Elaboration of the national drug agenda in Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago in which the research priorities in each country will be specified.

Jamaica and Suriname

Support to the National Council on Drug Abuse of Jamaica to incorporate a gender approach in the methodological design of two studies on drug use in two population profiles: pregnant adolescents and people with disabilities.
1 research questionnaire on drug use aimed at the LGTBIQ+ population with a gender approach in Suriname.

Cuba

Support to the Cuban National Drug Commission in the creation of its National Drug Observatory.
Technical dialogue with the Cuban authorities, the National Drug Commission and different areas that will have a fundamental role in the Observatory, for the joint design of the Observatory.
Training on the role, objectives and functions of the National Observatory on Drugs and on the creation of national networks for information, research and the Early Warning System on drugs.
Exchange of national experiences in Latin America and Europe in each of the processes, promoting dialogue between National Drug Observatories.

Jamaica

Official launch of the Jamaican Drug Early Warning System in February 2024.
Training of experts on new psychoactive substances, new consumption practices and the European model Early Warning System (EWS).

Antigua & Barbuda and the Dominican Republic

1 regulatory reform to improve the country’s legal tools and manage the chain of custody and final disposal of precursors in a comprehensive manner.
1 diagnosis on the management of precursors in the country to develop a comprehensive manual for the management and final disposal of chemical precursors.
1 study visit to Costa Rica and on-line training activities for the country’s technical staff on the manual for the management and final disposal of chemical precursors.

Saint Lucia

1 protocol for the control of precursor chemicals, which includes foreign trade activities, administrative and operational controls, prosecution and forensic exercise.

Antigua & Barbuda

1 software solution for the control of precursor chemicals in the country.

Fighting drug trafficking and organised crime

Protocol on special investigative techniques for undercover agents in Latin America, in collaboration with AIAMP‘s Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors (RFAI).
Guidelines to jointly address situations in which women and LGTBIQ+ trafficked persons are involved in the production, transit or commercialisation of drugs, in collaboration with three AIAMP networks: the Ibero-American Network of Specialised Prosecutors against Trafficking in Persons and Smuggling of Migrants (REDTRAM), the Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors of Ibero-America (RFAI) and the Specialised Gender Network (REG).
Accompanying the Network of Anti-Drug Prosecutors of Ibero-America and the AIAMP Environmental Protection Network to effectively combat the reduction of the environmental impact of drug trafficking.
Support to GAFILAT‘s Asset Recovery Network (ARN), which allows member countries to exchange relevant information to facilitate the tracing and identification of assets of illicit origin abroad, as well as mutual legal assistance. The following progress has been achieved:
- Platform for more efficient and secure information exchange.
- Good practices guide that addresses a comparative analysis on the application of asset forfeiture and non-conviction based confiscation in the region, as well as on national policies implemented in this area in GAFILAT countries.
- Regional best practice guide on parallel financial investigations.
COPOLAD contributes to the development of joint actions aimed at strengthening institutional capacities in CARICOM member states with these actions:
- Course on instruments for combating drug trafficking mafias.
- Course on drug law enforcement strategies to include new psychoactive and synthetic substances.
- Two reference guides for Caribbean countries.
- Higher course at the Universidad a Distancia de España (UNED) specialising in the control and investigation of drug precursors to provide advanced training for agents involved in the fight against drug trafficking.