In recent decades, with its nuances and variations, in Latin America and the Caribbean exponential growth has been recorded in private security services and in parallel, a greater legal demand for firearms to fuel the functioning and operations of these companies. This situation has presented a number of challenges for the States as well as the sector. The latter has become a potential target for criminal networks which seek to arm themselves. Â Lax legal frameworks, poor weapons management and the lack of training for personnel have been documented as factors which lead to a series of risks including losses, robberies and theft of arms and ammunition which represent a potential source of deviation to illegality.
In this context, at the request of the Dominican Republic, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), carried out on 13 March 2019 in Santo Domingo, the official launch of the technical assistance packet for strengthening national capacities for the effective and transparent management of small arms and ammunition in the private sector.
The aforementioned launch was carried out within the context of an executive seminar on good practices and international standards in the private security sector, which boasted the participation of representatives from the Ministry of Defence, the Superintendence of Surveillance and Private Security, the Public Ministry and other institutions, as well as representatives and managers from different private security companies and associations in the sector.
In this Seminar, the main initiatives and international standards available and applicable to private security as well as arms and ammunition control in the sector were presented, in order to start an open dialogue with the authorities, security companies and representatives in the sector on the opportunities for developing mechanisms for good governance.
As part of the first set of activities in this assistance packet, a technical workshop on international standards and good practices for stockpile management was also carried out on 14 and 15 March in Santo Domingo. In this Workshop, which was directed at supervisory personnel from the regulatory entity and personnel from private security companies, around 40 persons were trained. They received training in standards and procedures for strengthening physical security and stockpile procedures in order to mitigate and reduce the risks of illegal deviation.
The implementation of this assistance is made possible thanks to the financial support of the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany.