Indiana Attorney General Greg Zoeller has been named to the Alliance Partnership of the Conference of Western Attorneys General Advisory Board, which develops cross-border legal relationships.
Zoeller was named in recognition of his commitment to ongoing efforts to develop relations with attorney general counterparts in countries such as Mexico and Cuba, according to a press release from the state of Indiana attorney general’s office.
Zoeller has been involved in multi-state and binational efforts for several years with other state attorneys general to support rule of law and fight international crime in the United States and Mexico.
Zoeller also is the National Association of Attorneys General representative to the United States Trade Representatives. He is a member of the United States Global Leadership Coalition’s Indiana Advisory Committee.
“I am honored to continue my involvement in the Alliance Partnership and its mission,” Zoeller said in the press release. “The issues we tackle are not isolated and require ongoing dialogue and training with our Latin American neighbors to advance the rule of law and in combating the cross-border issues like human trafficking and transnational violence.”
CWAG organizes Alliance Partnership efforts. The Alliance Partnership leverages funding from the State Department and other entities that support rule-of-law programming. There are 42 United States attorneys general offices participating in the training of Mexican state attorneys general offices. The U.S. attorneys general offices will also train other Mexican justice and law enforcement entities.
CWAG has 34 participating Mexican jurisdictions and more than a dozen additional Mexican federal and state collaberating agencies.
The most recent exchange took place in Cuba in September. Zoeller and other attorney generals met with their Cuban counterparts and interacted with members of the Cuban legal community as part of an ongoing effort to fight both human and drug trafficking.
“These exchanges offer valuable insights for every participant,” Zoeller said in the press release. “Despite differences in our legal systems, every country faces serious common problems and we need to collaborate to fight transnational crime.”
The cost of trips like this are handled by the Alliance Partnership and are not paid for with Indiana tax dollars.
Zoeller has also started partnerships between the Alliance Partnership and the Woodrow Wilson Center International Center for Scholars. The Wilson center is a non-partisan policy forum for tackling global issues through independent research and open dialogue to inform actionable ideas for Congress, the president’s administration and the larger policy community.
Mark Fraley, chair of the Monroe County Democratic Party, said he is unsure how Zoeller’s role on the advisory board will affect Monroe County, but it’s exciting for the state to have a public servant who will be part of the commission.
William Ellis, chairman of the Monroe County Republican Party, said he thinks it’ll be really good to have an Indiana influence on the advisory board, particularly because of the opioid problem in Indiana. When Interstate-69 is completed and runs from Mexico through Indiana and ends in Detroit, it will make it easier for drugs to come into the state, he said.
“It’s not a Mexican problem and it’s not a problem that stops at the Texas border,” Ellis said. “I think that having the expertise of an attorney general that has fought that already would be phenomenal for Indiana and specifically Monroe County.”
