At their meeting today, President Clinton and the leaders of Central America and the Dominican Republic reaffirmed their commitment to the rule of law and agreed to strengthen their efforts to combat crime and improve security for their citizens. The San Jose Communiqué instructs ministers responsible for public security to develop a Plan of Action this year to address drug trafficking and corruption, money laundering and extradition. Attorney General Reno will meet in Washington with her counterparts on June 9 to begin this process. The leaders specifically endorsed ratifying the InterAmerican Convention Against Corruption.

Extradition: The San Jose declaration includes an important commitment by the leaders to modernization of extradition treaties, in conjunction with their legislatures and courts. This is a particularly important issue with respect to El Salvador and the Dominican Republic, both of which have large resident populations in the U.S. The meeting with the Attorney General will address the need to modernize not only extradition treaties but criminal justice institutions in general, to ensure that crimes of all kinds may be effectively prosecuted in all countries.

The United States, and a variety of other donors, are assisting the countries of Central America and the Dominican Republic to establish or strengthen professional civilian police forces investigative services, prosecutor's offices, judicial schools and other elements that are necessary to provide effective criminal justice services to their societies.

Latin America Regional Training Center: At the meeting today, President Clinton proposed the establishment of a new International Law Enforcement Academy in Latin America, analogous to the international academy we founded in Budapest. The Administrations budget includes several million dollars for this purpose and will be seeking support and cooperation from other countries throughout the hemisphere to bring the center to life. The scope of activities and programmatic focus of the center will be determined in consultation with the governments of the region. Although no decisions have been made regarding the location and structure of the center, an assessment team will be looking at several potential sites in Central America later this month.

Law Enforcement Training: U.S. law enforcement training programs in the region are aimed at establishing regional law enforcement networks to crack-down on transnational networks of criminals. The FBI, DEA, INS and Customs Service all maintain liaison officers in the region, and those agencies, along with Justice's international Criminal Investigative Training Assistance Program (ICITAP) are working with the Central American governments to help them modernize laws to combat transnational criminal activities and professionalize civilian police forces. Training is also directed to strengthening court systems in the region which are ill-prepared to deal with the volume and complexity of their caseloads. USAID is providing training and technical assistance for judges, prosecutors, public defenders and judicial support staff.

An Association of Central American Chiefs of Police began in 1986 with U.S. assistance and is now self-sustaining. The United States will also offer technical assistance this year in developing an operational plan to support the Central American Institute for Advanced Police Studies which the region's governments have agreed to establish in El Salvador. The Institute promises to be an important mechanism for sharing experiences among police forces in Central America and institutionalizing best practices.