-Caveat Lector-
Friday, 27 August 1999
U.S. drug chief in Peru
amid Andes narcotics crisis
---------------------------
By Saul Hudson
LIMA, Peru -- U.S. drug czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey and President Alberto
Fujimori met on Thursday to strengthen coordination in the anti-narcotics
fight amid signs traffickers could be winning the war in the Andean region.
McCaffrey is on a four-country South American trip to bolster cooperation
to thwart smugglers as cocaine output in Colombia soars and production of
the raw material, coca leaf, flourishes in neighbouring Peru.
Fujimori and McCaffrey acknowledged setbacks in recent months against
growers of coca leaf, but remained upbeat about Peru's strategy to beat
back the illegal trade in one of the world's top producing nations.
The drug czar, who has warned of a ``growing drug crisis'' in Andean
nations, praised Fujimori's anti-narcotics efforts running down
traffickers and helping farmers shift to legal crops with aid and advice
from the United States.
``I have enormous respect for what Peru has accomplished in the last
three or four years -- it is an example to be studied in the
international community. And I have personal respect for President
Fujimori's leadership in this process,'' McCaffrey told reporters during
his one-day visit to Peru.
Fujimori said he expressed concern in the meeting that Peru's relative
success in the anti-drug war could lead to the United States diverting
some much-needed aid to neighbours with worse narcotics problems.
McCaffrey's second trip to South America within a month reflects
heightened U.S. concern that chaos in war-torn Colombia could destabilise
a region that has made progress this decade in economic and democratic
reforms.
McCaffrey has been urging national leaders on this trip, which also
includes Brazil, Argentina and Bolivia, to treat Colombia's difficulties
as a regional problem.
Before boarding a plane bound for Argentina -- the last stop on his tour
-- McCaffrey told Reuters Television Colombia's situation was worsening
rapidly and warned of spillover into neighbouring countries.
Bogota's government is battling to contain leftist guerrillas financed by
drug money. Colombia provides about 80 percent of the world's cocaine,
obtaining much of the coca leaf from Peru.
With the White House convinced Colombia's drug and insurgency problems
cannot be divorced from each other, McCaffrey is pressing for the United
States to triple its anti-drug aid for Latin America to $1 billion next year.
Fujimori is in the vanguard of regional efforts to contain Colombia's
guerrillas, who control two-thirds of the countryside in areas bordering
Peru, Venezuela, Brazil and Ecuador.
This year, Fujimori has sent extra troops to the 1,000-mile (1,600-km)
border with Colombia and warned rebels there they can expect no mercy if
they cross the Amazon frontier.
Fujimori's achievements this decade in defeating once- powerful rebels
and slashing drug output have set a standard for other regional leaders
like Colombian President Andres Pastrana. Following his orders, Peru's
military shot down aircraft used by traffickers.
But McCaffrey has warned gains made by Lima could be eroded because
farmers were returning to abandoned fields of coca leaf.
Peru's anti-drug campaign has faltered over the last year as traffickers
-- encouraged by prices that have about doubled in the period -- smuggle
coca through the Amazon to neighbouring countries, especially Colombia,
on foot or by mule and boat.
The booming trade in Colombia and Peru contrasts with Bolivia, which
McCaffrey predicted this week could eliminate all cocaine production
within a few years thanks to its model policies eradicating coca fields
and helping farmers shift to legal crops.
Copyright 1999 Reuters Limited
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