During the recent visit to Colombia, Ylva Johansson, European Commissioner for Home Affairs of the European Union, pointed out that the Total Peace policy that she seeks to implement in the country is ambitious and difficult, so from that multilateral organization in the old continent will follow closely.
“It is quite an ambitious plan, there are some difficulties and challenges in this plan so we are going to follow it very closely. The European Union is going to give its support to go after these criminal groups (…) it is an ambitious and difficult plan that Colombia has to address the problem from this perspective, but we know that in the past it has not been successful, that is why we must try something different,” he said in an interview he gave to the station La W Radio during his visit.
He reiterated on the radio that the persecution against the structures dedicated to drug trafficking in Colombia cannot cease and that blows should be promoted at their highest levels.
“The most important thing is to go after the organized groups because they are very strong, professional and they are international groups that have a presence in Latin America and Europe, so you have to pursue them at the highest levels, the highest heads of these groups,” held.
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He also assured that the war against this phenomenon of transnational crime has not been lost as the world experts believe.
“The war against drugs is not lost, we must consider that these mafias not only traffic drugs but also human beings and weapons, that is why we must attack them; I consider it crucial to strengthen this fight against the mafias and be creative because they always find new ways to continue committing crimes”, he stated on La W Radio.
European Union seeks to hit the upper levels of drug trafficking groups
The European Union announced on Thursday, February 2, that it will finance a pilot project in Colombia with which it seeks to strengthen police cooperation and the exchange of information with Europol, in its firm commitment to combat drug trafficking, organized crime and human trafficking.
The announcement was made by Johansson, together with the Minister of the Interior, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal of Belgium, Annelies Verlinden, during their visit to Bogotá, as part of a tour they carried out in the region and which began with a visit to Ecuador.
“We are in Colombia to talk about the fight against the upper levels of organized crime gangs,” Johansson said at a press conference in the Colombian capital.
He added that it is important to unite the forces of the European Union and Colombia to show criminal groups that: “We are going after them and we will do it together.”
The fight against organized crime and the violence associated with it is, for Johansson, a threat to security in Europe, Colombia and Ecuador, another of the countries that the senior official visited, so it is crucial to strengthen cooperation in the area of security with Latin America.
Likewise, the senior official pointed out that “the citizens of the European Union and the world cannot be kept safe without teamwork” because “the criminals are very professional and are working with bases in Colombia and Europe.”
The Commissioner for Home Affairs announced the commitment of the European Union to finance a pilot project in Colombia to operationalize police cooperation and the exchange of information with Europol.
“It is important to start attacking the upper levels of criminal groups,” Johansson said, adding that “it is a shared responsibility to fight these groups” because “we are talking about the security of our citizens in Europe and Colombia.”
For her part, the Belgian Minister of the Interior said that “criminal organizations must be dismantled” and that “no country can face this fight on its own because organized crime groups involved in drug trafficking operate in several countries ”. with Infobae