President Luis Abinader enacted the new Regulation for the Application of the National Police Organic Law 90-16, after six years of waiting. The President made the announcement in an event on Friday, 14 January 2022 at the Presidential Palace.
Abinader also announced the appointment of José Vila del Castillo, a Spanish and Latin American police force and drugs combatting expert, as the new Executive Commissioner for the Transformation and Professionalization of the National Police. The Commission for the Implementation of the National Police Transformation and Professionalization Plans was created on 7 January 2022 by Presidential Decree 2-22.
The new entity is responsible for the implementation of the plans, strategies and policies designed by the working group for police reform, the implementation of its recommendations and to follow up on the whole process of structural change of the National Police begun in mid-2021.
The Commission is chaired by President Abinader himself, accompanied by the Minister of Interior and Police, Jesús Vásquez, as vice president. Also on the new commission is Minister of the Presidency Lisandro Macarrulla and Servio Tulio Castaños, who has directed the Police Reform initial efforts of the Abinader administration.
Born in Madrid, Spain in 1960, José Vila del Castillo “Pepe” has a degree in Philosophy and Letters from the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid. He has an MBA from the Instituto de Empresa in Madrid.
He worked as an advisor to the National Plan on Drugs of Spain and as a consultant to various entities such as Unicef – Spain; Municipal Plan against Drugs of the Madrid City Council; Anti-Drug Agency of the Autonomous Region of Madrid in Spain and the European Union on drug trafficking issues for the Andean Pact.
Vila del Castillo was until recently Regional Representative and Senior Regional Advisor of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
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Presidency
17 January 2022