DOD Trains Latin American Officials in Human Trafficking Awareness

Officials from the Defense Department's Combating Trafficking in Persons Office hosted an information session yesterday in the Pentagon regarding trafficking in persons for participants from Latin American nations who are part of the State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. Participants have a range of occupations, from law enforcement and judicial duties to victim advocates and immigration officials.

Defense Department CTIP officials led discussions and answered questions about ways to identify and stop human trafficking and shared their training materials and resources in that endeavor.

Marcela Jimenez, program analyst with CTIP, said her office helps train DOD personnel and contractors learn to identify trafficking victims, report suspicious behavior and prevent human trafficking.

Jimenez noted that her office receives reports on TIP incidents involving not only DOD personnel but also contractors from its vast supply chain.

Special training is provided for acquisition personnel, investigative professionals DOD school staff, judge advocates, chaplains and healthcare professionals, who are often survivors' first point of contact of, she said.

The department believes that transparency and accountability is important, Jimenez said, mentioning that the CTIP website has accounts of trafficking survivors, some of whom have a DOD nexus, along with their photos, videos and biographies. That site is updated regularly.

Brenda Zurita, intergovernmental affairs specialist with CTIP, said her office collects TIP incident reports from defense criminal investigative organizations worldwide and reports case information to the Justice and State departments annually, as appropriate.

All federal agencies have a CTIP office. The department's office was created in 2007, and was the first federal agency to require CTIP training for its personnel, she mentioned

Francisca del Rocio Becerra Arevalo, with IVLP, is a victim advocate in Ecuador. She said today's session was helpful in learning about methods to identify victims and ways to improve community outreach. She noted that there's a lot of trafficking in Ecuador, particularly within the adolescent population.

Col. Anabel M. Cornielle Suero, a Dominican Republic National Police officer, said information from today's session will be valuable for her department, particularly the awareness aspect. Currently, the only people in law enforcement who are directly involved with trafficking cases have that knowledge. She hopes to train the entire force, down to the cop walking the beat, on trafficking awareness.

Manuel Alejandro Rodriguez Altamirano is a prosecutor from Tamaulipas State, Mexico. He said a lot of trafficked people are transited through his state. He hopes to use the information gleaned today to better educate the courts and law enforcement.

The IVLP participants visited the State and Justice departments Tuesday and are visiting the Department of Homeland Security today. For the remainder of the month, the group will travel to several cities throughout the U.S. to meet with law enforcement, non-governmental organizations and others involved in the fight to stop human trafficking.

This is the fifth IVLP group focused on combating trafficking in persons that DOD hosted this year. Over 80 participants from around the world have learned about the extensive work DOD is doing to fight human trafficking.

Since 1940, the IVLP has hosted more than 225,000 participants for exchanges focused on topics ranging from promoting women and youth leadership, increasing transparency and accountability in government to promoting cybersecurity and combating transnational crime.