The government of Argentina signed an agreement with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to join forces in the fight against organized crime, the Argentine Ministry of Security announced.
“A healthy return to the policy of international coordination in security matters, which began in 2015, is being carried out through the Secretary of International Relations of the Argentine Ministry of Security,” Martin Verrier, assistant professor at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies at the U.S. Department of Defense regional center in Germany, told Diálogo on May 30.
The cooperation agreement was signed on May 4 in Washington, D.C., between Argentine Security Minister Aníbal Fernández and FBI Deputy Assistant Director Jason Beachy to create a joint task force with Argentine federal forces.
The agreement includes training courses, equipment supply, and information exchange to curb transnational crimes such as narcotrafficking, terrorism, human trafficking, and cybercrime, Argentina’s Télam news agency reported.
Years ago, Argentina promoted the creation of joint task forces with U.S. support, Verrier said. The South American country also joined in 2016 the Joint Airport Interdiction Task Forces of the Airport Communication Project, a United Nations (U.N.) initiative for police personnel in airports of countries that are narcotrafficking routes’ point of origin or transit.
Argentina also joined the European Union’s Seaport Cooperation Project, which contributes to the fight against illicit maritime trafficking and associated criminal networks in Latin American, the Caribbean, and West African countries, in line with human rights, to alleviate negative impact on security, public health, and socioeconomic development.
Argentina will be the first country in Latin America to form this task force with the FBI with a focus on regional security, while Paraguay and Brazil will follow suit, sources from the Ministry of Security told Argentine news site Infobae.
“In the regional context, organized crime has advanced significantly in Uruguay, Paraguay, Chile, and Ecuador, and generated significant increases in homicides, as is the case of Ecuador, which with 25 homicides per 100,000 inhabitants shows worrying levels of violence,” Verrier said.
For the FBI, cooperation and information sharing will allow agencies from both countries to work together to mitigate transnational crime in Argentina and the United States, the agency said via Twitter.
This will mark the first time that FBI investigative teams are integrated with local detectives, but Argentine security forces have a long history of working with their U.S. counterparts on Argentine soil. In fact, there are several combined groups operating in certain areas to combat narcotrafficking, Argentine newspaper La Nación reported.
The FBI’s ties and support to Argentina are longstanding. In September 2022, the U.S. agency issued an alert about an Instagram user who expressed his intentions to attack a shopping mall in Buenos Aires, but he was arrested before he could cause harm to citizens in an Argentine Naval Prefecture-led operation.
January marked the 200th anniversary of diplomatic relations between the United States and Argentina, highlighting various aspects such as the strengthening of democracy, the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking, the Argentine Ministry of Foreign Affairs indicated.
Argentine security forces maintain a seamless agenda with different U.S. security agencies, including the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and the Department of Homeland Security, Infobae reported.
“The agreement with the FBI is a new step for Argentina to become one of the main partners of the U.S. in the fight against transnational organized crime,” Verrier concluded.