WEBINAR – Forensic DNA at the Service of Justice in Colombia

“On Thursday, September 28 at 8 a.m., the GTH DNA team for LATAM held a two-and-a-half-hour Webinar in Colombia for guests from the entire Colombian judicial, police, political and academic sectors. The objective of the event was to hold the first online public debate on the need for a law for criminal DNA databases in Colombia. It was co-sponsored with the Institute of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of Colombia.

We had three main speakers during the discussion:

• Eusebio López Reyes, Administrator of the Spanish national criminal DNA database.
• Fernando Guzzo, Head of the Homicide Prosecutor’s Office of the Province of Mendoza in Argentina.
• José Vicente Pachar, Head of the Department of Legal Medicine and Forensic Sciences of the Republic of Panama.

Initially 119 users were connected, of which 112 remained connected until the end of the webinar. Among the audience were professionals from Peru, Mexico, Argentina and Colombia, where GTH DNA LATAM focuses its efforts. There were a significant number of questions and requests for more information during and at the end of the event. The recording of the Webinar will soon be available on our GTH DNA Justicia Forense – DNA Latin America website.

This webinar was an important first step in raising awareness of the ongoing behind-the-scenes work to get Colombian legislators to approve a new DNA database law and was joined by colleagues from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Narcotics and Law Enforcement (INL) in Colombia.

It is anticipated that GTH DNA will host an in-person seminar in the coming months in Colombia to further discuss and launch the proposed bills.”