ZAGREB, March 14, 2018 – Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović on Tuesday visited the Juan Vucetich Police Academy in La Plata, where, together with the security minister of Buenos Aires province, Christian Ritondo, she unveiled a plaque commemorating Ivan Vučetić, inventor of modern fingerprint identification, her office said.
During the visit to the academy, the Croatian president said that the historical ties between the Croatian and Argentinean peoples dated back to the mid-18th century when Croat emigrants started settling in Argentina due to economic as well as political reasons, in search of a better life.
Many of them were successful and became prominent members of the community in Argentina, and one of them was Ivan Vučetić, she said at the plaque unveiling ceremony. “The police academy in La Plata today bears his name, as does the Forensic Science Centre in Zagreb, and his pioneering work in the field of dactyloscopy is today used by police and forensic services around the world,” she said.
“With their life and work, people like Ivan Vučetić have built a bridge of close cooperation between Argentina and Croatia and it is up to us to cross that bridge,” she said.
