Guatemala
Project News
Spring 2010
The RCMP Gazette recently featured an article about the Criminal Intelligence Analysis course led by the Society in Guatemala in early 2009. The course was delivered to 21 prosecutors, investigators and analysts from Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras.
Winter 2010
A Canadian wiretap expert from the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU) travelled to Guatemala in December to provide coaching in the use and implementation of wiretapping.
The course was previously delivered in Canada in April 2009 and saw extremely successful results. The skilled use of wiretapping has since helped investigators solve many major and exemplary cases that have drawn international attention, such as the Rosenberg Murder case, the Buganvilla case (a large cocaine seizure involving high ranking police and officials), and the Extortions Network case (Spanish article).
This activity has been undertaken with the financial support of the Government of Canada provided through the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade.
Fall 2009
Our extensive presence in Guatemala has evolved from single small proposals to a full training program which is in place at present. Along the way we have been able to respond and tackle specific requests coming form our partners that sprung out of the same work that we were doing in the field. Also, new legislation passed in the country allowed for the implementation of Special Methods of Investigation to fight against organized crime. Therefore, a specific plan was developed to help Guatemala acquire these specialized techniques of investigation.
In April 2009, Canadian experts hosted a Course on Telephone Interceptions (wire tap) where a selected group of 18 police, intelligence agents, prosecutors and judges from Guatemala received the appropriate training on this investigative method and learned the use of the equipment that the Guatemalan government had recently purchased for this purpose.
This past August, as a second part of the project, CAFCA (Centro de Análisis Forense y Ciencias Aplicadas or the Centre of Forensic Analysis and Applied Sciences), organized a three day Seminar called “Special Methods of Investigation: legal and investigative challenges” to discuss the challenges both legal and operational to the implementation of these techniques in Guatemala. There were 21 participants at this seminar including Guatemalan and Canadian police officers, intelligence agents, prosecutors, and judges.
A third component to this project, a course on surveillance, is under development and will be offered in the next few months.