The yellow in the Colombian flag represents gold, the blue the Pacific and Caribbean coasts and red for the blood spilt for the country.
Colombia’s past has been one fraught with turbulence and the agreement with FARC in 2017 brought hope for peace. This peace was shattered when the Santander police academy in Bogotá was bombed on 17 January 2019 by the National Liberation Army (ELN), killing 21 people.
It was symbolic that, the OAS, UNODC and CTED, hosted the Central and South America E-Evidence workshop for terrorism, organised crime and cyber investigations, at this same police academy in Bogotá.
Significantly, e-evidence has been an important part of the subsequent investigation of ELN and the take-down of a server in Spain for propaganda,
The workshop was an opportunity to present regional best practices and how the Guide for Requesting Electronic Evidence Across Borders can be used to advance terrorism and organised crime investigations.
It was great to hear from Guatemala how they have already used the Guide successfully for investigations and to train colleagues!
As experts, we put so much time and effort into drafting and ensuring the effectiveness of any tools developed. To hear the Guide has been used for positive results, will hopefully give others the confidence to use it too. Thanks Guatemala – champions leading the way!
I’m often asked how to access the Guide – well here goes – please follow these steps: