EMBASSY MANAGUA ENDORSES MODIFIED OPDAT ANTI-TIP

UNCLAS MANAGUA 000435 SIPDIS SIPDIS DEPARTMENT FOR WHA/CEN, WHA/PPC, AND G/TIP DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE FOR OPDAT E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PHUM KWMN KCRM ELAB PREL SMIG ASEC NU SUBJECT: EMBASSY MANAGUA ENDORSES MODIFIED OPDAT ANTI-TIP PROJECT PROPOSAL REF: A. 05 STATE 221183 ¶B. MANAGUA 230 ¶1. In reftel B, Embassy Managua submitted an anti-trafficking in persons (TIP) project proposal to the Department that focuses on strengthening the capacity of the Ministry of Government to fight trafficking. Subsequently, post learned that the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Overseas Prosecutorial, Development Assistance and Training (OPDAT) program submitted a separate proposal to the Department that would offer training to various Nicaraguan anti-TIP actors. ¶2. Post's anti-TIP working group has been in contact with OPDAT to discuss OPDAT's project proposal, and has encouraged OPDAT to narrow its original submission to focus on two key areas: training to enhance the capacity of key Nicaraguan law enforcement officials (prosecutors, investigators, and border officials) and a regional anti-TIP conference for key government and non-government TIP specialists. This conference would be held in Managua and would focus on Nicaragua as a TIP source country and Nicaragua's Central American neighbors as the primary destination for most Nicaraguan TIP victims. It would seek to increase regional cooperation in preventing trafficking from Nicaragua, prosecuting traffickers, and repatriating Nicaraguan victims. Post understands that OPDAT has already submitted this modified proposal to the Department. ¶3. Although the project proposal post already submitted (reftel B) remains our top funding priority, we believe that the modified OPDAT proposal would dovetail well with our previous submission, and would help to address one of the anti-TIP weaknesses that the Department has highlighted in its annual TIP reports on Nicaragua: the relative lack of effective prosecutions of traffickers caused by poor interinstitutional cooperation and flawed police gathering of evidence. ¶4. In addition to assisting the development of an operational handbook for the effective investigation and prosecution of TIP cases, OPDAT's proposal will encourage the law enforcement institutions to analyze Nicaragua's current laws and recommend changes to the current substantive criminal and procedural laws that will recognize the modus operandi of organized crime in these offenses and improve enforcement operations by giving the police the procedural tools necessary to conduct more proactive, large-scale investigations and prosecutions and prosecutors the ability to preserve victim testimony. Embassy Managua thus endorses the modified OPDAT proposal and, if sufficient money is available, requests that the Department fund both post's original submission and the modified OPDAT proposal. TRIVELLI