TRAVELING TO MEXICO?

HERE ARE A FEW THINGS YOU MUST KNOW.

Lately and for some time now it has been said that traveling into Mexico City, whether on business or pleasure is a dangerous adventure. There is a certain amount of truth to this statement.

Mexico City, as outlined by a major Canadian newspaper, is the most dangerous place in the world to live during times of peace. Many people believe this headline to be sensationalistic, but if we take the time to think about it, there is absolutely no war going on in Mexico as opposed to Colombia, where guerrilla organizations have terrorized the country for years. Even within the United Kingdom there has been ongoing conflict with the IRA and other terrorist organizations being the centre of attention for many decades. At this moment it may be more dangerous to live or travel to places like Israel or Gaza, but both are also under constant terrorist siege. But once again, this is not the case for Mexico.

In Mexico, Canadian travelers are exposed to other types of risk such as the unknown attacker who is very well organized, but always remains anonymous. This attacker receives no physical gains from killing, but will do so to get what he wants, which in most cases is money.

Unfortunately, there has been an increase in these violent crimes prompting focused attention from the Canadian media. This advertising has manifested a great state of uncertainty and fear among Canadian nationals traveling to Mexico. Realistically, it is impossible to cut off traveling to Mexico altogether for one very simple reason; it is one of the most important emerging markets in the world and our North American neighbour, with whom we have signed a free trade agreement. So, to forget our circumvent Mexico is not an option.

With these points in mind, V.I.P. PROTECTION has achieved an ironclad alliance with the leading security and executive transportation company in Mexico City. The Response & Emergency Security Team or REST is the premier executive protection agency in Mexico City specializing in transportation and protection of expatriates traveling from abroad.

The operational guidelines followed by REST have been designed based on U.S. Secret Service standards and protocols. REST implements full frontal supervision to every single vehicle transporting or supporting our clients. Through various coordinated systems REST provides an unparalleled protective standard.

The REST standard is designed on three different methods to ensure our clients security. First and foremost, the people who form the REST Team are thoroughly scrutinized. Our recruiters and trainers know more about the drivers than the drivers will ever know about our clients. Therefore, it is impossible for the drivers to disappear in case of any wrongdoing. Every six months, each and every REST driver is submitted to a polygraph exam (lie detector) to look for any indication that they might turn into a liability or risk.

Some tests that REST applies to our staff:

•  Polygraph examination

•  Background Check

•  Family Ties

•  Anti – Doping

•  Psychological and psychometrical tests (These tests will highlight and show indications of antisocial behaviour)

•  MIDOT – an electronic test developed by the Israelis and widely used within their army and intelligence teams.

A copy of the results from any of these tests is available upon request.

The second method REST uses to ensure the reliability of its service is a proprietary supervision scheme. This scheme relies on a 24 Hr Command Centre whose main responsibility is to ensure that all REST 's vehicles and drivers are supported in case of any inconvenience.

REST 's Command Centre provides the full support of several emergency response teams and informational teams. The data teams provide constant, current information like traffic reports and advance reconnaissance for trip planning. Additionally, all vehicles are outfitted with the most advanced satellite tracking equipment available transmitting vital information from the vehicle to our command centre in real time. All these systems working together in conjunction with our highly trained operators ensure that our clients travel in a state of real security.

All REST command centre operators are trained in:

• Crisis Management

• High Impact Teams

• Crime Scene Preservation

• Marcó Jurídico de la Seguridad Privada

• Executive Protection

• Evasive and Defensive Driving

• Surveillance and Counter-surveillance

• Intelligence and Counterintelligence

• Evacuation and Expatriation Procedures

• Customer Support

The third and final factor, which forms the REST Standard, is TRAINING. Every driver receives several training sessions per year on such subjects such as; close body protection, executive protection, evacuation measures, counterintelligence, evasive driving and defensive driving. Supplementing the ongoing training is that all drivers are local residents of Mexico City and have an intricate knowledge and understanding of the streets and routes within the city.

REST is the best-suited company for all business travelers coming to Mexico, whether you require a low profile car and driver or a fully armored van and follow car. Whatever your needs are we can provide the full range of services for your safety and convenience.

Please contact REST to find out how we can help you and your business remain safe while in Mexico by preventing unexpected events, which can jeopardize your success and permanence in the market.

Terrorism Vs the 21 st Century and Canada

I n today's world corporations face a multitude of security challenges. Corporations can be vulnerable to a variety of attacks, threats and antagonists. These include workplace violence, threats from ex-employees, militant environmentalists, terrorism , money laundering, theft of proprietary information and acts of sabotage; to name a few.

Unfortunately no matter where you are in today's world everybody could be experiencing an act of terrorism. The same like our society is evolving, business, corporations; terrorism is evolving at the same time at an even faster pace.

From Nationalist, Religious, State Sponsored, Left Wing, Right Wing, Anarchist, Agricultural, Narco, to Economical Terrorism only to name the major ones and again they are not written in stone but they are all aimed at one goal.

Creating Havoc, publicity, and the change of government's decisions without loosing sympathy of their followers and supporters.

Every corporation who communicates by telephone, fax, email, etc. is at threat to terrorism especially when they are represented globally and are attracting a large amount of media. Most corporations' policies and procedures in the matter of an attack or even natural disaster are NOT up to date, implicated and refreshed. It is not only enough to have money laundering policies in place and any kind of investments over $ 1000,00 we have to go further all the way to the Information Infrastructure which is always at risk.

It is a vital point to review such policies at least once per year and consult with an expert in that matter. We have been focusing on reviewing current policies for large corporations around the world, assisting them in incorporating the necessary information or even developing new policies, which they never had before. Educating Risk Managers, Underwriters, Brokers on how to understand such steps, educate them on how to properly evaluate the threats at hand and updating them on a regular basis with current vital information about the global outcome of terrorism and which threats are affecting them in their location.

Corporations with offices in Mexico City are well aware of the risks of Kidnap and Ransom they have taken out insurance policies for such events the same should be done for terrorism since we have that threat throughout the world and not only at one or two locations in the world. But that is not all besides having insurance, understanding the risk, being “legally prepared” there is always one more thing; which will not be planned out and that's where you need to be prepared for which you can only obtain by proper policies and procedures planned out and every possible risk calculated and a resolution for the “ Just in case” ………….. We have to exercise and follow such policies and procedures to the dot.

Marc Sand, B.A., PhD., CEPS, CAS, Certified Anti-Terrorism Specialist the Chief Executive Officer of V.I.P.POTECTION , which was founded in 2001, a 21 st century company to serve the 21 st century's risks and challenges with offices in Canada, USA, Mexico, France, United Kingdom, Greece, Dubai and China are specialized in helping executives and corporations live their lives in a safe and secure environment, freeing executives and corporations from complex security problems that can plague a business and leaving them to concentrate on the corporate tasks at hand and not having to worry about terrorism or any other threats. We are fully assisting them in any manners from the early stages to the resolution of the situation. Besides our excellent expert services and knowledge of terrorism we provide our clients even with more then our services and knowledge but also host each months Anti-Terrorism seminars, for risk managers, corporations and law enforcement agencies which have the duration of one, two and three day s which cover all aspects of terrorism from the basics into every possible detail.

The importance of preparation and being proactive towards Terrorism is more important then ever. More and more political involvement if that's Canadian troupes in Afghanistan or anywhere else we all have to realize that the threat is there and not waiting across the border only watching over Canada. Public awareness is very important in being pro active to such vital facts and the public is not well educated enough. Insurance companies, corporations of any kind can assist in their own ways creating sort of an internal defense system in ways of placing anti-terrorism policies and procedures into place and most importantly testing them at least once per year the same like the fire drills are being tested and executed make sure people are aware of the steps they have to take in such an event.

Now we have just mentioned a few situations which can happened; not even determined yet which corporation or line of business is a possible target to which act of terrorism when and where.

Like our neighbors the United States of America corporations are strongly relying on the information provided by several government agencies that monitor terrorist around the world provide the public, which is not always enough. Similar problems like in every corporation and business there is a lack of communication. Due to budget cuts and untrained staff there are only a few agencies around the world who operate on the higher echelons who are able to determine if the data they collect is information or intelligence. The problem right now is not enough qualified experts on staff to determine that. Information Vs Intelligence which means; collected data which has been evaluated as information should be available to the public and intelligence is meant for law enforcement agencies to help fight and avoid possible future terrorist attacks.

We are ending up again in the spot, we need experts from each individual field to cooperate with each other, sharing their expertise to create the best possible defense against any possible threats not only the ones from terrorists. Toronto Saturday the 3 rd of June 2006, in reference to that incident which was fortunately prevented and stopped by law enforcement agencies; the Oklahoma City Bombing on the 19 th of April 1995 was executed with one third of the amount which was seized this weekend in Toronto, and it killed 168 people including 19 children and one person who died in the effort of rescue. Over 220 buildings sustained damage.

We need to be aware of all circumstances more then ever. Thank you for providing us with the opportunity to share my expertise with your magazine and audience in this article.