Earlier in the news, you saw our interview with Police Commissioner Chester Williams who is currently in Nassau, Bahamas. He's attending a conference organized by the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police.
ComPol Williams is engaged in the sharing of ideas and best practices with his Caribbean colleagues, but last week, he was in Lyon, France consulting with the authorities in Interpol on ways to ensure that the organization is evolving with the needs of the member countries.
Here's what he had to say about the organization through which the law enforcement agencies of the world collaborate:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"Last week, I was in Leon, France, attending the meeting of the Interpol Committee that deals with the governing of Interpol. And what we were looking at was to see how we can make amendments to the Constitution of Interpol, as well as other laws that govern the running of Interpol. One of the things we looked at is the fact that the Interpol constitution was written many, many years ago, and from then to now, international law has changed to some extent, and the laws in countries have also changed to some extent. So, what we want to do is to make sure that whatever constitution is put in place, it is in line with the respective laws of the member states, and as well that it falls within the ambit of international law. So, we looked at several areas of amendments, and what we'll be doing hereafter is that we are to have a follow-up meeting in Singapore in September this year. After that follow-up meeting, we will finalize the recommendations that we'll be making to the Interpol General Assembly in November of this year. So, there's there are certain things we are looking at to make sure that we make the right amendments. So I am happy to have been a part of that group that sat down and decided on those amendments, to make Interpol more workable for all member states."
COMPOL In Bahamas
The Commissioner also discussed a few of the topics being discussed at the conference organized by the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police. He said that transnational and cybercrimes were high on the agenda:
Chester Williams - Commissioner of Police
"This week I am in Nassau, Bahamas. I am attending the Association of Caribbean Commissioners of Police Conference. And again, here we are discussing several aspects of policing within the Caribbean region, including - we had presentations on the whole issue of transnational and organized crime. We had a presentation also on cybercrime, Western Union, and how Western Union can be used as a vehicle to move money as a part of organized crime, among many others. One of the salient presentations we had was on the exploitation of children, which was done by Facebook and I'm happy to have seen that Facebook, within its organization, has a unit that deals with the sexual exploitation of children. They also have an Amber Alert that they are creating within Facebook, which I think countries should be able to benefit from. I had I sit-down with the Facebook representative and I have asked him to see how we can get the Amber Alert for us in Belize, and it's something they had promised that they are going to work on. I also met with the Facebook representative for Central America, and I've invited him to come to Belize to do a presentation to us on how we can use Facebook, and how we can obtain information from Facebook, in a more expedient manner as it relates to conducting investigations, where Facebook might have been used in providing certain information or as the case may be. He has willingly accepted to come to Belize in July. One of the things we also discussed was the issue of these fake accounts that are being created on Facebook, to see how we can get Facebook to provide us with information on those fake accounts, in a more quick manner, as opposed to how it has been done, now."
COCOTRAM Coming
Belize is set to join the Central American Commission of Maritime Transport or COCOTRAM for short.
And while we've dabbled in a relationship with the maritime authority for years now we've never quite committed. Now it seems that under the direction of Minister of Public Utilities and Logistics Michel Chebat, and Port Commissioner Major Gilbert Swaso, Belize will finally take its rightful place in the SICA organization.
7News was invited to the Port Authority for the Press conference to announce the momentous move.
Major (Ret'd) Gilbert Swaso, Ports Commissioner
"We may all know that Belize as a country is a member of SICA and COCOTRAM is one of the organizations that is integrated with SIC Belize for over 20 years has been associated with COCOTRAM and has derived some significant benefits as a result of being associated with COCOTRAM, however, there is tremendous more benefits to be earned if Belize should become a full-fledged member of COCOTRAM so it is then that we have a delegation of four people which includes the Vice-Minister, the president of COCOTRAM and the Executive Director who is here with us to explain to the minister the chairman of the board and the Senior management of Belize Port Authority the tremendous benefit that can be derived for a country, as a country and as a maritime and Port administration and those benefits include training they also include technical capacity building and contingency planning just at the very basic."
Otto Noack Sierra, Executive Director, COCOTRAM
"I think and I'm convinced that with the person of the Hon. Minister Michel Chebat that we already have an open door and we will do our best effort try to convince and have Belize as soon as we can as a member state of COCOTRAM."
Saul Castellar Contreras, Deputy Minister of Transport COCOTRAM
"I believe that beyond the benefits that are related to the different conventions that COCOTRAM has especially with institutions like the IMO, the International Maritime Organization has a very strong capacity building program that it's conducted through COCTRAM any basically, an example for the different regions in the world, I probably say that it's one of the strongest capacity building programs for any region in the world."
Otto Noack Sierra, Executive Director, COCOTRAM
"Also, we are regulated for the maritime international organization, the international maritime convention. We can try to technical assistance using this channel through COCOTRAM directly to Belize. Belize actually is receiving technical assistance coming from the Caribbean side being a member of COCOTRAM Belize could have two possibilities one for the Caribbean and another from COCOTRAM so that's a very big open door."
We'll have more on the proposed benefits of COCOTRAM on our newscast tomorrow night.
LPG SLIGHT DECREASE
The Supplies Control Unit, within the Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Enterprise, is reporting tonight that the price of cooking gas is going down ever so slightly.
At midnight, the price for a 100-pound tank, which is currently at 149 dollars, will decrease to 148 dollars in the urban areas of the country. The price for that same 100-pound cylinder will cost 2 dollars more in the rural areas of the country.
Lennox Nicholson, the Controller of Supplies, says that the slight ease in Liquefied Petroleum Gas is due to a decrease of 6 cents per gallon for the current shipment.
