Pubdate: Thu, 21 Jun 2001
Source: Reuters (Wire)
Copyright: 2001 Reuters Limited
Author: Anthony Boadle

U.S. ANTI-DRUG STRATEGY STALLS IN THE ANDES

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. anti-drug strategy in the Andes has stalled as 
officials figure out how an American missionary plane was shot down by a 
Peruvian Air Force plane and politicians ask why U.S. allies in Peru are 
now wanted for corruption.

The State Department this week expanded an inquiry into the downing of the 
plane that killed an American woman and her baby in April to a review of 
its program to intercept airborne drug shipments in Peru and Colombia. 
Interceptions have been suspended.

The shoot-down policy adopted in 1994 was key to cutting off an air bridge 
used by traffickers in Peru, once the world's largest producer of cocaine 
before Colombia took that role.

As Colombia pushes ahead with a controversial U.S.-funded military and 
police offensive against drug plantations, U.S. officials acknowledge there 
are signs that coca growing is on the rise again in Peru. Democratic 
senators, now in control of the Senate agenda, plan to hold hearings early 
this Fall on Andean counterdrug policies, aides said on Thursday. They also 
want to look at U.S. ties to Peru's former intelligence chief Vladimiro 
Montesinos, now a fugitive accused of crimes including involvement in 
massacres, arms and drugs trafficking, money laundering and vote rigging. 
Human rights groups had long warned that the United States was turning a 
blind eye to human rights abuses in Peru for the sake of advancing its drug 
war objectives under president Alberto Fujimori (news - web sites), who was 
brought down in November by a series of political scandals surrounding his 
spy master, including the running of guns to Colombia's Marxist guerrillas.

Cozy Deal

"I think there was a little cozy deal with the previous government that I 
have my suspicions about. I cannot say that with absolute certainty, but 
boy there is an awful lot of smoke around," Democratic Connecticut Sen. 
Chris Dodd told Reuters.

Dodd said he has held private talks with other senators about holding a 
hearing on U.S. links to Montesinos.

"The U.S. was allied with Montesinos for counternarcotics purposes and it 
turns out that he may have been controlling the drug trade in Peru," said 
Gina Amatangelo, an expert at the independent Washington Office on Latin 
America. Amatangelo said it was not the first time that a U.S. ally was 
found to be involved in the drug trade, pointing to former Panamanian 
dictator Manuel Noriega, who like Montesinos once was an informant of the 
Central Intelligence Agency (news - web sites) (CIA (news - web sites)). 
U.S. forces invaded Panama in 1989 to overthrow Noriega, who is now serving 
30 years in a Florida high-security jail for drug trafficking. The Clinton 
administration conducted a review of its ties to Montesinos in the 
mid-1990s, but decided that his role in providing Peruvian cooperation in 
the drug war was too vital, a former official said.

Eyes Wide Open

"It was not a matter of turning a blind eye. It was more troubling than 
that. It was eyes wide open to the good and the bad," a former Clinton 
administration official told Reuters.

"It was so patently clear that what Fujimori and Montesinos were doing 
undermined democracy in Peru," he added.

When Fujimori sought an unprecedented third term last year, U.S. officials 
knew the vote was rigged by Montesinos.

"That was all engineered by Montesinos. Everyone knew that. It was no 
secret," the former official said.

Washington brought international pressure to bear on Fujimori that 
contributed to his downfall. But there had been constant run ins between 
the CIA and the National Security Council and the State Department over 
Peru, he said. "There was friction between the NSC and the CIA, between the 
drug czar's office and the NSC, between the Pentagon (news - web sites) and 
State, and within the embassy in Lima," the official said.

No Alternative

Despite rumors that he was corrupt, the CIA and other U.S. government 
agencies maintain they had to work with Montesinos because he was the 
equivalent of national security advisor and head of Peru's intelligence 
service at the time.

"The U.S. government by necessity had to deal with him," a U.S. 
intelligence official told Reuters.

Under Fujimori, the Peruvian government defeated Maoist and Marxist 
guerrilla groups and succeeded in reducing coca leaf cultivation by 70 per 
cent in five years. Fujimori fled to Japan and is wanted in Peru to stand 
trial for corruption.

Clinton's drug policy director Gen. Barry McCaffrey admits Montesinos was a 
"dangerous character" responsible for the "corruption and authoritarianism" 
of Fujimori's government.

The shadowy Montesinos infuriated McCaffrey in 1998 by doctoring a video 
tape of their meeting to show Peruvians that he was on good terms with the 
U.S. drug czar.

But McCaffrey insisted: "Montesinos was a Peruvian creature, not a U.S. 
creature."
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