Spanish
Santo Domingo. –The International Republican Institute (IRI), in partnership with Crime Stoppers for the Caribbean, Bermuda and Latin America, announced the start of a regional initiative aimed at strengthening the institutional, public and private capacities of the Dominican Republic and Panama against transnational organized crime, corruption and kleptocracy.
The project will develop a comprehensive mapping of actors, including government institutions, security agencies, control entities, civil society, and key legislators. This process will include multi-sectoral consultations, semi-structured interviews, and a detailed analysis of the regulatory and normative frameworks related to the fight against organized crime and its national and regional ecosystem.
The collaboration between IRI and Crime Stoppers will allow combining technical capabilities, operational experience, and regional networks to identify the main current challenges, institutional gaps, reform and legislative harmonization opportunities, as well as possible more effective inter-institutional cooperation mechanisms.
"Collaborative work between institutions is fundamental to contribute to countries in developing more effective mechanisms for the fight against criminal convergence and its illicit economies, which is why we are very pleased with this alliance with the IRI to work in Panama and the Dominican Republic; it is worth mentioning that with the IRI we maintain a long cooperation that began with issues such as kleptocracy, which are also part of the current project. In the Dominican Republic, Crime Stoppers has been doing a good job thanks to the openness of the public authorities and actors from the different powers of the State, who are focused on implementing an effective agenda for the prosecution of organized crime and require the most modern and updated legislation to advance even further in investigations and sentences," said Alejo Campos, regional director of Crime Stoppers.
As part of the initiative, face-to-face workshops will be held in the Dominican Republic and Panama, sharing the findings of the mapping and strengthening the technical coordination between institutions responsible for the prevention, control and prosecution of organized crime and corruption.
For IRI and Crime Stoppers, this joint effort represents a strategic step to strengthen democratic governance, protect public resources and improve citizen security in a region where illicit economies and transnational criminal networks continue to evolve.
