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DOJ/OPDAT Latin America and the Caribbean Programs
Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) is a diverse and dynamic region in which many countries are currently undergoing transitions from inquisitorial judicial systems to accusatory systems. In LAC, OPDAT provides targeted technical assistance and mentoring programs to prosecutors, investigators, and judges. Assistance often includes reform of criminal codes and criminal procedure codes. OPDAT also provides technical assistance in specialized areas, including terrorism, gangs and organized crime, witness protection, cybercrime, human trafficking, intellectual property rights, corruption, and money laundering and asset forfeiture. In conducting these programs, OPDAT works closely with Criminal Division components, the Department of State, and other federal government agencies.
In addition to headquarters personnel, the OPDAT/LAC team has six veteran US prosecutors serving as Resident Legal Advisors (RLAs) in Colombia (4), Brazil (1) and Paraguay (1). The RLAs coordinate and administer programs that promote justice sector reform and build the capacity of law enforcement officials to fight corruption and disrupt terrorism and money laundering. RLAs work directly with their foreign counterparts to effect sustainable change.
OPDAT's largest program in LAC is in Colombia. Since 2000, the Justice Sector Reform Program (JSRP) at the US Embassy in Bogota has worked to implement a new Colombian Criminal Procedure Code and assisted with the country's transition from a written inquisitorial to an oral accusatorial system of justice. The transition was completed on January 1, 2008, but OPDAT RLAs continue to work with Colombian counterparts to implement the new Code and provide training in specialized areas such as Human Rights and Witness Protection. The OPDAT RLAs in Colombia have also helped strengthen the Colombian judiciary and enhance the courts' working relationships with other criminal justice sector institutions. In 2006, OPDAT began implementing a similar series of criminal trial advocacy assistance programs for prosecutors in the Dominican Republic and Argentina, countries that recently transitioned to an accusatorial system of justice.
In El Salvador, OPDAT has worked with other Criminal Division components and federal agencies and law enforcement representatives from Mexico, El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras to coordinate a series of anti-gang programs. These programs improve regional law enforcement cooperation in intelligence gathering and investigations, while improving each country's capacity to effectively prevent, investigate, and prosecute gang violence.
Since 2007, OPDAT's Paraguay RLA has assisted Paraguayan legislators to review and reform the penal and criminal procedure codes. Further, he works closely with law enforcement in Paraguay and the Tri-Border region -- Paraguay, Brazil and Argentina - to build the capacity of law enforcement to fight money laundering and terrorist financing.
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