Colombia and Honduras Monday in Bogota signed an agreement that will allow the two nations to share intelligence on drug trafficking, kidnapping and organized crime.
Colombian Foreign Minister Jaime Bermudez and Honduran Minister of Security Oscar Alvarez signed the pact about two weeks after new Honduran President Porfirio Lobo was controversially sworn in to office.
Bermudez said that the new Honduran government has already shown “interest and concern” in the fight against drug trafficking.
Alvarez said that cooperation with Colombia will be channeled to the creation of joint intelligence units, anti-narcotics units, anti-terrorism units and anti-kidnapping units, among others.
Alvarez will meet with Vice President Francisco Santos, security agency DAS director Felipe Munoz and National Police Commissioner Oscar Naranjo while he is in Colombia.
Colombian President Alvaro Uribe was the first dignitary to officially recognize the new Honduran government when he visited newly inaugurated President Lobo at the end of January.
Uribe’s visit was seen as the first step toward repairing international ties that were fractured in military coup in Honduras last June.