Participants at the 1st Regional Assistance and Protection Exercise for GRULAC States Parties, which was held in Brazil from 19 – 22 August 2014.
The first Regional Exercise in Assistance and Protection for States Parties in Latin America and the Caribbean (GRULAC) was held from 18 to 22 August 2014 in Rio de Janeiro. The course was co-organized by the Government of Brazil and the OPCW with 41 specialists from 19 States Parties participating.*
The course was the last stage of the GRULAC Pilot Project for 2014, and was preceded by two other capacity building activities in assistance and protection held earlier this year in Chile and Argentina. Participants’ knowledge of the proper use of individual and protective equipment, reconnaissance, detection, sampling and analysis, rescue and decontamination techniques, and emergency planning was assessed with a comprehensive final field exercise.
The full training cycle in 2014 resulted in the creation of a strong reference team of 29 first responders-trainers from 19 GRULAC States Parties. The full cycle approach being implemented by the Technical Secretariat aims at strengthening and consolidating capabilities in the GRULAC region through more effective use of available resources, in accordance with recommendations given by the Third Review Conference.
The Second Assistance-and-Protection Training Cycle for the GRULAC region will start in early 2015 with basic trainings that are planned to be held in Brazil and the Dominican Republic.
* Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, St Kitts and Nevis, Uruguay.