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Lima, March 25 (EFE) .- The Public Ministry (Prosecutor’s Office) of Peru created the first exclusive offices to investigate crimes of trafficking in cultural property in order to combat the illegal trade of the country’s cultural and paleontological heritage, reported the Ministry of Culture this Friday.
In view of the permanent operations carried out by the Peruvian State once morest the mafias that extract cultural heritage from the country to commercialize it, the Ministry of Culture proposed to the Prosecutor’s Office the creation of these fiscal offices to speed up the filing of complaints and the prosecution of this crime, detailed that government portfolio in a statement.
The National Prosecutor, Zoraida Ávalos, confirmed the appointment of the offices within the framework of the “International Workshop once morest Illicit Trafficking of Cultural Property”, an initiative of the Assistance Program once morest Transnational Organized Crime (Pact) of the European Union ( EU).
In the last decade, Peru has repatriated almost 17,000 heritage objects, both through judicial and diplomatic channels, within the framework of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) convention.
The Minister of Culture, Alejandro Salas, celebrated the designation of the fiscal offices, which will be in charge of investigating all those illicit acts that threaten the cultural heritage of Peruvians, the information added.
In these dependencies, other crimes once morest cultural and paleontological heritage will also be investigated, while prosecutors will be in charge of “preparing a rapid proposal for prevention and prosecution of this type of crime,” the source added.
To arrive at this proposal, the prosecutors in charge must analyze current Peruvian legislation and identify good practices and technical mechanisms to optimize response capacity.
Trafficking in cultural property is transnational and is developed through organized crime networks that participate in the different stages of trafficking, which makes it a complex crime that threatens the history and cultural legacy of communities and countries.
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