Colombia to train Baja California state police

[Judi Lynn]

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Colombia to train Baja California state police
Submitted by WW4 Report on Fri, 06/05/2009 - 20:50.

Baja California Prosecutor General Rommel Moreno Manjarrez has announced that Colombian specialists will provide anti-kidnapping training to state law enforcement officials. Members of the Colombian National Police were in Baja California this week to lay the groundwork for the training which will be offered to 35 personnel attached to the state prosecutor general's office. Officers selected for the training will be vetted by the Colombians, Moreno said.

The planned training grew out of a meeting between Moreno and Dr. Luis Camilo Osorio, Colombia's ambassador to Mexico, in Mexico City last month. According to Moreno, trainers from the Gaula anti-kidnapping unit of the Colombian National Police will give instruction on operational tactics, intelligence, police investigative techniques, and hostage negotiation. Moreno said fighting kidnapping is one of the priorities of the state prosecutor general's office. Baja California's top law enforcement official said 78 kidnapping gangs have already been broken up in the border state.

In one of the latest incidents, Moreno reported that radiologist Heriberto Valenzuela Vadillo was freed on the morning of June 3 after spending five days in captivity.

The Baja California-Colombia anti-kidnapping agreement is similar to an accord reached between Colombia and Chihuahua state last month. Colombian trainers also from the Gaula unit are expected to arrive in Chihuahua this month.

The growing Mexico-Colombia police training agreements are beginning to draw critical comments in Mexico. "Colombian paramilitaries arrived in Mexico," wrote Leticia Castro on the daily La Jornada’s web site. "Tell me who your friends are and I will tell you who you are."

Another writer, identified only as Alejandro G., wrote: "The Colombian and Mexican police are among the most corrupt in the world...the relationship of two corrupt police forces is being promoted by the Mexican state. The creation of a new cartel?"

http://www.ww4report.com/node/7407

[Judi Lynn]

1. Apparently Colombia's involved well beyond Baja, too!

Monday, June 1, 2009

Colombia to Aid Chihuahua, Mexico, in Anticrime Efforts

Frontera NorteSur

A high-ranking delegation of political, business and legal leaders from Ciudad Juarez and the state of Chihuahua returned to Mexico (last) week after completing a May 21 trip to Colombia. The visit netted commitments by the Colombian government to train Chihuahua police and help implement new social welfare programs.

The accords cover Colombian training of a planned Chihuahua state police group of 50 rapid response, anti-kidnapping personnel, assistance in improving police investigative and surveillance techniques, and help in establishing four social welfare programs in Ciudad Juarez modeled after similar ones developed in Medellin, Colombia. Colombian trainers for the new Chihuahua anti-kidnapping squad could be in Ciudad Juarez as early as next month.

"It will be a very interesting experience to talk with President Alvaro Uribe to find out his experiences over the course of the years," said Chihuahua Governor Jose Reyes Baeza in the run-up to the trip.

A major Colombian product, cocaine, has played a tremendous role in shaping the history of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua during the last 30 years.

Led by Reyes Baeza, the 31-person Mexican delegation included State Attorney General Patricia Gonzalez, Federal Congressman Octavio Fuentes, Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez Rector Jorge Quintana Silveyra, state lawmaker and Mexican Green Party (PVEM) regional leader Maria Avila Serna, businessman Luis Carlos Baeza, Ciudad Juarez Chamber of Commerce President Daniel Murguia Lardizabal, and the mayors of Ciudad Juarez and Chihuahua City, among others. The invited list read almost like a Who's Who of Chihuahua society and politics.

Oddly, Antonia Gonzalez Acosta, the coordinator for the current Chihuahua state attorney general's anti-kidnapping unit in Ciudad Juarez, allegedly shot herself to death on the eve of the state delegation's visit to Colombia. Gonzalez was reportedly pregnant.

More:
http://www.mexidata.info/id2282.html