Mexico: ICITAP Attaché Joins OPDAT Resident Legal Advisor to Help Combat Trafficking in Persons in Oaxaca

On August 6, ICITAP-Mexico’s Law Enforcement Assistance Attaché (LEAA) participated as a subject matter expert in a half-day training workshop with OPDAT’s Resident Legal Advisor (RLA) instructor and eight prosecutors from Oaxaca. The prosecutors were members of a specialized unit investigating violent, gender-based crime and trafficking in persons against women, children and adolescent. The emphasis of this training is the appropriate development of information through the criminal interview leading to the discovery and protection of the victims, and the disarticulation of criminal networks through intelligence gathering and the prosecutor's effectual utilization of witness' testimony at trail. ICITAP-Mexico Attaché’s instruction included considerations for interviewing children, adolescents, and adult victims of violent crime. The RLA completed the training by explaining the use of the information gathered during the interview. Over the past year, ICITAP-Mexico’s Attaché has participated with OPDAT in a series of these trainings conducted virtually in Michoacán, and on-site in the Federal Police Headquarters for Investigation, Mexico City, and Merida, Yucatán. In Mexico, ICITAP works with the support of and in coordination with the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL).