From 26-30 October 2020, the United Nations Regional Centre for Peace, Disarmament and Development in Latin America and the Caribbean (UNLIREC), in collaboration with the Chilean National Customs Service, carried out its second virtual edition of Interdicting Small Arms, Ammunition, Parts and Components (ISAAPC) Course in the region. Due to the COVID pandemic, the Centre restructured and adapted its training to a virtual format to facilitate continued training. As part of this process, the course content was updated and different interactive resources were included to facilitate the understanding and interaction through UNLIREC’s new e-learning platform.

The aim of this five-day course is to support Latin American and Caribbean States efforts to combat and prevent the diversion and illicit trafficking of firearms, ammunition, parts, components and explosive through postal shipments, parcels and baggage by providing specialized x-ray identification training.

The course is aimed at x-ray screening operators and support personnel with responsibilities in control and inspection at points of entry, exit and transit as well as other security check points. Forty (40) officials from the Directorate of Customs of Chile, Directorate General of Civil Aviation and Chilean Carabineros attended the course.

Through a theoretical and practical methodology, participants received specialized training on technical specifications of small arms, their parts, components, ammunition and explosives as well as on elements related to the interpretation of X-ray images that may suggest the presence of a threat. In addition, participants had access to a training platform developed by the Center for Adaptive Security Research and Applications (CASRA), which contains a repository of images developed by UNLIREC.

This ISAAPC Course has supported countries in the region to improve their detection capacities and interdiction practices in support of the prevention and combat of illicit trafficking of small arms, ammunition, parts and components. Participants expressed interest in this training as a tool to strengthen their capacities to identify firearms and ammunition. This is very relevant as in recent years firearms and ammunition are increasingly being sent illegally via air cargo and postal shipments.

This training course was funded by the ATT Voluntary Trust Fund (VTF), of which Chile is a beneficiary and UNLIREC, at the request of the Chilean authorities, is an implementing partner.