Pubdate: Fri, 03 Aug 2001
Source: Washington Post (DC)
Section: Final Edition, Editorials, Pg A18
Copyright: 2001 The Washington Post Company
Contact:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/491

SLOPPY START IN THE ANDES

A State Department investigation into a joint U.S.-Peruvian program to 
interdict drug traffickers' airplanes has reached a clear-cut, if 
dismaying, conclusion. According to the report released yesterday, the 
probe -- which followed the accidental shootdown in April of a private 
plane carrying American missionaries -- found that sloppy discipline and 
procedures explained how CIA-contracted trackers and Peruvian air force 
personnel could have combined to target and kill innocent people. The 
program dates back to 1994, so the Bush administration can hardly be blamed 
for its failures. Yet "sloppy" is a word that could also apply to the 
administration's handling of the issue -- and its broader start on 
combating drug trafficking in the Andes.

Following the accidental shootdown, which killed Baptist missionary 
Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter, administration officials 
promised Congress that a thorough investigation would be completed within 
weeks, then used to reevaluate the air interdiction program, which has 
operated in both Peru and Colombia. In the meantime, tracking operations in 
both countries were suspended. But as The Post's Karen DeYoung reported 
this week, once a report came back pointing to systematic breakdowns of 
training, communications and safeguards in Peru, officials sat on the 
results -- delaying both the promised accountability to Congress and 
necessary decisions about corrective action. The delay prompted a House 
vote last month to hold up $ 65 million in military and development aid for 
Peru until the investigation report is delivered and action taken -- a 
potentially serious blow to the administration's counternarcotics program 
in the region as well as to Peru's new democratic government.

The slow action on the investigation reflects a general lack of energy and 
impetus in the administration's approach to the troubled countries of the 
Andes. Apart from repackaging the Clinton administration's Plan Colombia as 
an "Andean initiative" spreading counternarcotics aid to neighboring 
countries such as Peru and Ecuador, the administration has given little 
attention to the region's serious problems. U.S.-backed spraying of coca 
fields under Plan Colombia was recently halted by a Colombian judge; in 
Washington, legislation to renew Andean trade privileges is languishing in 
Congress. Meanwhile, without the U.S.-directed airborne tracking, 
interceptions of narcotics-bearing aircraft have all but ceased in Peru and 
fallen off by 80 percent in Colombia. Such backsliding is dangerous. The 
Bush administration must act to energize its engagement with the Andean 
countries. In doing so, it should work with Peru's new government to clean 
up the joint air program and establish procedures and safeguards that will 
allow tracking and interdiction to begin again.
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MAP posted-by: Beth