The Attorney General, Francisco Barbosa Delgado, traveled to Tegucigalpa (Honduras), where he held a meeting with his counterpart in that country, Óscar Fernando Chinchilla Banegas, to strengthen cooperation and assistance in the fight against transnational organized crime.
Moreover, at this meeting, sessions were held with technical teams of both countries to design and implement strategies to face challenges that criminal phenomena such as migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, and money laundering pose.
In that sense, the Attorney General in Colombian stated that the meeting was aimed at strengthening ties of trust with the Public Ministry of Honduras, to give not only continuity to the migration topic that was discussed in Cartagena, but also to establish a bilateral agenda of common priorities in which the strategic objectives pursued by the two institutions can be aligned.
“We have shared those experiences concerning the improvement of what is related to obtaining the technical evidence and also about the cooperation with the prove and physical evidence that we have in cases that affect essential issues in Honduras, and that can help the Prosecutor’s Office in Honduras with the investigations”, stated the Attorney General Barbosa Delgado.
Likewise, the ongoing and open exchange of information regarding investigations into the crimes in question was agreed. This way, simultaneous and joint impact will be achieved against the criminal organizations that commit these offenses and profit from them. Likewise, it was proposed to create a prioritization team focused on cases of bilateral interest and create a joint investigation team for processes that need it.
By signing a joint statement, the AttorneysGgeneral reiterated that they will act with strict respect for due process and human rights in accordance with the constitutional mandates of each State. They also reaffirmed their commitments to carry out joint actions and binational operations against drug trafficking, money laundering and related crimes that cross borders and affect both nations.
“This type of link between the two prosecutor’s offices is part of the statement made in Cartagena de Indias a month ago in which 13 prosecutors in the region talked about how to actively cooperate into judicial police activities (actos urgentes) and in the dismantling of criminal organizations to break the routes or international crime corridors that exist in our region”, concluded the Attorney General of Colombia.
Meanwhile, the Attorney General of Honduras, Óscar Fernando Chinchilla Banegas, highlighted: “For the Attorney General´s Office of Honduras it is an occasion of great satisfaction to have the presence of the Attorney General of Colombia and his technical team, which has allowed us (…) to exchange opinions, criteria and review joint work, the potential that each team has, how to do more efficient work for the benefit of our functions”.
He finally added that “it is fundamental that from the public ministries of the region we begin to guide society in the construction of that model of prosecution policy that allows efficient prosecution and punishment of crimes. These efforts that are materializing will continue throughout the region. We believe that this initiative of Attorney General Barbosa is important and we will accompany and support it, we will continue working, and improving the capacities of our institutions to remind our citizens that our Offices exist to represent and protect society”.
When we speak, results follow.