TERRORISM DOWN SOUTH

America's attention abroad is naturally focused on Afghanistan, but the
signs emerging from Latin America's Andean countries - in terms of
terrorism, political instability and drug trafficking - are growing
ominous. What makes these problems particularly alarming is not only their
geographical proximity to the United States, but also their resonance
within America's borders.

Sadly, there is no shortage of Americans who can attest to the human
tragedy of drug addiction and the impact on U.S. financial institutions,
the corrosive corruption that follows in its wake, and the budgetary
outlays that go toward fighting the problem.

In the Andean region, meanwhile, terrorism and drug-trafficking have become
increasingly tied, as narco-terrorists, armed with sophisticated weapons
and a thin veneer of ideological motivations, become involved in all
aspects of the underground trade. These narco- terrorist are spreading
their tentacles within Latin America and throughout the rest of the world.

One of Latin America's bloodiest guerrilla-terrorist groups, the Shining
Path, is trying to stage a comeback in Peru, and it is being backed by the
deep pockets of Colombian drug-traffickers, who are providing the Peruvian
terrorists with poppy seed and arms. In a recent meeting with editors and
reporters of The Washington Times, Peru's ambassador to the United States,
Allan Wagner, attested to the terrorists' resurgence. "Of course this
social unrest provides the opportunity for them to be active again," Mr.
Wagner said, pointing to the frustration that ongoing economic hardship has
provoked. But he added that Peruvians' memory of the Shining Path's
brutality hasn't faded. "The experience of the Shining Path in Peru has
been terrible, and those that suffered the most were the poor people. They
were enslaved." For more than 12 years, mostly during the 1980s, 30,000
Peruvians died in Shining Path-related conflict.

Peruvians surely don't want to return to that bloody era, so the Peruvian
government feels an urgency to revitalize the economy in order to stave off
a potential stampede back to the coca and poppy fields. As "we succeed in
fighting drugs and terrorism in Colombia . . . drug-traffickers are trying
to come back to Bolivia and Peru," Mr. Wagner said. Naturally, this is
causing a challenge for recently elected President Alejandro Toledo, who
succeeded Alberto Fujimori's 10-year autocracy in July.

The Toledo administration believes that freer trade with America is
instrumental to building greater economic opportunities in Peru, and for
this reason it is requesting a renewal and expansion of the trade
preferences of the Andean Trade Preference Act (ATPA), which was introduced
in 1991 by the first Bush administration as a means to create
non-drug-related jobs in Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Bolivia. The act
expired Dec. 4. "Why subsidize our social programs when you can create
jobs?" Mr. Wagner reasonably asked.

Some senators are opposed to allowing Peru to export these goods to America
and are holding up the bill. Surely, these legislators are seeking to
protect American industries, but they should also be asking themselves
whether it isn't in America's interest to have Peru export shirts and
sweaters, rather than cocaine or heroin.