Pubdate: Sun, 15 Sep 2002
Source: Oklahoman, The (OK)
Copyright: 2002 The Oklahoma Publishing Co.
Contact:  http://www.oklahoman.com/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/318
Author: Nestor Ikeda, Associated Press Writer

MARINES PREPARE PERUVIAN EXERCISE

WASHINGTON -- About 600 Marines will exercise for the first time in the 
Amazon Basin of Peru, but Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said Saturday 
the maneuvers are not a precursor to building a U.S. military base in the 
South American country. The Peruvian Congress has authorized the Marine 
operation at the Peruvian navy's Nanay base on the banks of the Amazon near 
Iquitos, 650 miles northeast of Lima. Previous significant U.S.-Peruvian 
operations have been in the Pacific and not inland.

Peruvian press reports maintain the Marines aboard the dock landing ship 
USS Portland would be testing areas in Peru for a military base to help 
Colombia fight drug traffickers and the leftist guerrilla group, the 
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia.

"I want to categorically deny that the exercise of some U.S. military 
forces in the Peruvian Amazon are related to a building of any U.S. 
military base in Peru," Toledo told Associated Press Television in a Friday 
night interview.

Iquitos is the easternmost Peruvian city in the Amazon region, about 120 
miles in a straight line from the southern border of Colombia. The region 
is a haven for guerrillas and drug traffickers.

Toledo said the Marines will start a routine nine-day operation today with 
the Peruvian navy, both along the Pacific coast and in the Amazon Basin. 
The USS Portland is to enter the Amazon in Brazil.
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MAP posted-by: Tom