7 News Belize

FOPREL: Improving Legislation Against Transnational Organized Crime
posted (January 21, 2016)
Right now, Michael Peyrefitte is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. And, by virtue of his post, that also puts him into a Central American organization made up of other House Speakers from the neighbouring Central American Governments. They work together to try to harmonize legislation in all these countries, such as in the areas of transnational organized crime.

Today, Belizean Parliamentarians participated in a seminar where the organization, referred to as FOPREL, discussed proposed amendments to the money laundering and firearms trafficking laws. 7News was there for that presentation, and we spoke with the Speaker about the intended changes.:

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker, House of Representatives
"It's under the aegis of the Central American body known as FOPREL. Loosely translated in English, it means the Forum of Elected Presidents which essentially is the house speaker for each country in Central America and we get together from time to time to discuss issues. And very important to a part of the process is we come up with proposed legislation to strengthen the institutions in our different countries. Right now we are hearing presentations from consultants in Central America concerning money laundering and the trafficking of firearms and we have two consultants who are going to present to us as to what we can do to better our laws when it comes to firearms and money laundering. I am prepared to go in there right now and tell them that Belize has some of the most stringent money laundering and firearms legislation. So what he is saying that we need to do and what we need to improve on, I think I just may need to enlighten them as well that we are very, very solid in those areas, but that's basically what the presentation is about today."

Santiago Rivas Leclair - Executive Secretary, FOPREL
"We are presenting 2 framework laws that we had drafted in the Dominican Republic, Honduras, and Salvador. We're presenting them now in Belize, and in the next week, in Guatemala and Nicaragua. They are two framework laws funded by the World Bank, which relates to the possession of light weapons and another related to money laundering and the legitimization of assets."

Hon. Michael Peyrefitte, Speaker, House of Representatives
"The presentation that's going on right now and I am missing a piece of it, it involves that and especially when you get to money laundering. Because money laundering as you were hearing briefly just now, it's tied intricately into the illegal movement of arms and drugs. So when we get to money laundering then we will see how business participate. But even though they don't deal directly in guns, the money that they move from the sale of arms could also be deemed to be trafficking in firearms and well as money laundering. What I really enjoyed here today is that we have 4 senators from both sides of the isle represented and the Speaker myself and I like that Minister Hulse is here who is both a member of the National Assembly and the Executive."

After leaving Belize, the FOPREL representatives will move on to Guatemala and Nicaragua.

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