It was a very productive week for SEACOP in Ecuador 🇪🇨!
SEACOP, represented by Project Director Dominique Bucas and Regional Coordinator for Latin America Alfredo Diaz Sanchez welcomed a high level delegation composed of European 🇪🇺 Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson and Belgian 🇧🇪Minister of Interior Annelies Verlinden.
Their visit was part of EU’s continued efforts to strengthen cooperation on issues of common importance, mainly #maritimesecurity and the fight against drug trafficking in Ecuador and the region.
This cooperation was embodied by the signing of an agreement between Rear Admiral Pablo Caicedo, National Director of Aquatic Spaces, and Charles-Michel Geurts, EU Ambassador to Ecuador on Tuesday, as part of CRIMARIO, another maritime security project funded by the EU and implemented by Expertise France.
The two parties stressed the importance of this agreement, which will allow the Ecuadorian Navy to have access to a technological satellite system that will allow its officers to know the dynamics and movements of drug trafficking methods, such as the planting of buoys in the middle of the sea.
“It is a precise system that allows us to know when there are events on the high seas, to position and demonstrate the behaviour of certain cargo abandoned at sea, which is one of the modalities of drug trafficking,” said Mr Caicedo.
