Weekly Report - 19 August 2003

While Costa Rica ponders ratification of the ILEA agreement (see above), training to deal with kidnappings has already begun at what is to become a permanent centre in Colombia. Under a recent bilateral agreement the US has begun to train some 400 officers of Colombia's Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS, secret police), chief prosecutor's office and the anti-kidnap units of the national police and armed forces. Run from the US embassy in Bogotá, the training centre will be permanently housed at the headquarters of an army battalion. Complementing it will be a new anti-kidnap database, the Sistema de Información para la Toma de Decisiones sobre Secuestro.