ILEA Joint Committee Meets in El Salvador

August 29, 2008

The eight-member joint committee chaired by Deputy Chief of Mission Robert I. Blau, met this Friday in El Salvador to discuss future program activities for the International Law Enforcement Academy.

The committee is formed by bi-lateral representatives from the US and El Salvador. Representing El Salvador, the president of the joint committee is Vice Minister of Public Security and Justice Astor Escalante. Other Salvadoran representatives include Attorney General Felix Garrid Safie, Director of the National Academy for Public Security Benjamin Cestoni and Acting Director of the PNC, Jose Luis Tobar Prieto.   For the US, in addition to Mr. Blau, other members of the committee are Anthony Stapleton, International Narcotics and Law Enforcement representative at post, John Beasley, the Justice Attaché and Dan Weber, Embassy Regional Security Officer.

Since its creation, the academy has provided several specialized courses that range from how to deal with gangs, combating trafficking in persons, handling domestic violence, investigating environmental crimes and many others. Over 500 representatives from twenty-four countries from the Western Hemisphere received training in El Salvador in 2007.

The United States established the ILEA program in order to combat international crimes such as drug trafficking, organized crime and terrorism by providing high quality training to members of law enforcement agencies throughout the world. The first ILEA facility was established in Budapest, Hungary in 1995. It was followed by the academy in Bangkok, Thailand in 1999 and another opened on Gaborone, Botswana on 2001. The Post-Graduate Academy was established on 2001 in Roswell, New Mexico, in the US.

ILEA was established by a Bilateral Agreement that was signed between the government of El Salvador and the US on September 21, 2005. The Agreement was subsequently ratified by the National Assembly on November 30, 2005. Last February, a design plan for new facilities was presented.