Participants at a sub-regional exercise on response to chemical warfare agents and incidents with toxic industrial chemicals, which was held from 16 to 20 May in Guadalajara, Mexico.
The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) trained a new group of 31 first responders from Central America and Mexico during a Sub-Regional Exercise on response to chemical warfare agents and incidents with toxic industrial chemicals, held from 16 to 20 May in Guadalajara, Mexico.
Ambassador Joel Hernandez García, General Director for the United Nations at the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs, underscored in his opening remarks Mexico’s commitment to continued cooperation with the OPCW to achieve a world free of chemical weapons. Mr. Antonio Vazquez del Mercado, Coordinator of the Mexican National Authority to the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) thanked the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat for supporting, “Mexico’s contribution to this endeavour, which aims to enhance the protective capacity of Member States of the System for Central American Integration (SICA) and Mexico, against chemical warfare agents and incidents with toxic industrial chemicals.”
Representatives of the Guatemalan Emergency Management Agency (CONRED) and the National Centre for Disaster Prevention (CENAPRED) of Mexico were also present at the opening ceremony and during the ensuing exercise.
The exercise occurred at the conclusion of a full cycle of trainings that had started with a basic course held in El Salvador in 2013 with the support of the Secretariat of the System of Central American Integration (SICA). This basic course was followed by an advanced training in Costa Rica in 2014, and a Table-Top Exercise organised in Honduras in 2015. Though not a member of SICA, Mexico gladly accepted OPCW’s invitation and joined this sub-regional project in 2015.
The training benefitted from the support of the National Directorate of Civil Protection of Mexico and was jointly run by the OPCW’s Technical Secretariat and the Civil Protection and Firefighter Unit of the State of Jalisco where the OPCW had conducted national training for Mexican first responders in 2011.
The participants for this final training came from nine States Parties to the Chemical Weapons Convention: Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama and Paraguay.