On November 8, 2019 Mr. Alejandro Campos and our partner Hugo Morán R., acting as President and Secretary of Crime Stoppers Panama, respectively, presented to the Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO) the legislative initiative called “Model Law to Combat Illicit Trade and Transnational Organized Crime”.
This model Law was presented to Latin American Congressmen of the Commission on Citizen Security, Combat and Prevention of Drug Trafficking, Terrorism and Organized Crime of PARLATINO, who received a detailed support of the aforementioned initiative to provide best practices to combat Transnational Organized Crime, trademark counterfeiting, illicit trade, smuggling, including diversion of genuine products, and illegal practices through electronic commerce and in free trade zones. Likewise, the Model Law includes chapters to strengthen cooperation, international assistance and public-private participation between governmental entities and trademark owners, proposing a Public-Private Inter-institutional Council for the Fight and Prevention of Illicit Trade. Finally, a chapter was included to encourage education and training of consumers, users, authorities and civil society in general so that they are aware of the problems and negative results of illicit trade and transnational organized crime.
The Model Law constitutes the first Latin American regulation that compiles in a single document, best practices to combat all these crimes, taking into account that organized crime operates without considering the borders between countries. This regulation will be submitted in 2020 agenda for final endorsement.
The Latin American and Caribbean Parliament (PARLATINO) is made up of congressmen and active deputies from 23 Latin American countries from Central America, the Caribbean and South America, such as Panama, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Aruba, Cuba, Curacao, St. Marteen, Dominican Republic, Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela. PARLATINO has adopted 94 model laws in different areas of security such as money laundering and financing of terrorism, tax evasion, corruption, human trafficking, cybercrime, among others, which have been adopted by Latin American Congresses in the last 20 years. MORAN IP is providing pro bono legal advice to CRIME STOPPERS PANAMA Foundation in the drafting of the Model Law to Combat Illicit Trade and Transnational Organized Crime.
