US DRUGS POLICY UNDER PRESSURE

Downing Of Peru Aircraft Attention Drawn To Narcotics Control Methods

The downing of a civilian aircraft in Peru last week has drawn
attention to a little-known but controversial US drug traffic
interdiction policy. In the past 15 years, the US has spent an
estimated Dollars 30bn on international drug control, most of it in
Latin America and much of it outside the public eye. Pressure is now
mounting for a change in policy.

The downing of the aircraft "raises questions about what the US is
doing and the historic mistrust of America's involvement in Latin
America", says Michael Shifter at the Inter-American Dialogue.

Since March 1995, Peru has shot down, forced down or strafed more than
30 aircraft and seized more than a dozen on the ground, according to
the Central Intelligence Agency.

Congressmen and senators have called for a thorough review of the
programme, suggesting the investigation and suspension of operations
in Peru and other Latin American countries ordered by President George
W. Bush this week may not be enough. This suspension could last up to
six months.

The US surveillance jet that alerted Peruvian authorities to the
missionary aircraft was manned by CIA contractors - prompting some in
Congress to call for an end to outsourcing such risky military work.

Mr Bush does not only face scepticism at home. "Latin American
governments are not as obsessed" with drug trafficking, says Mr Shifter.

The White House acknowledges that the blame-game being played since
Friday has the potential to sour relations between Peru and the US at
a critical point. The Andean country faces a second round of
presidential elections to replace the exiled Alberto Fujimori. Neither
country is willing to take full responsibility, in no small part for
fear of being sued by the crash survivors.

It was shortly after the interdiction programme began in 1994 that
lawyers at the State Department recognised the fine line the US had
been walking for several years. The fear of breaking international law
by participating in the actions prompted the government to ground its
aircraft for several months and institute the rules that now define
its operations procedures.

Those rules specify that authorities trying to capture a suspected
drug flight must make radio contact, visually communicate and inspect
and try to force down an aircraft. Only after that can they resort to
shooting the aircraft down.

Playing by US rules has bred resentment in countries such as
Venezuela, which has been reluctant to permit US military jets into
its airspace, and Brazil, one of the region's largest transit routes
for illicit drugs, which the Clinton administration failed to bring on
board. Continuing to shift the blame over the crash in Peru risks
exasperating those resentments.

Straining relations with its Latin American partners is too great a
risk for the Bush administration. Interdiction stops a significant
portion of potential illicit drug exports reaching the US, estimates
Jonathan Winer, deputy assistant secretary for International Narcotics
and Law Enforcement Affairs during the Clinton administration. Halting
the US interdiction efforts would be dangerous.

"You give a free pass to traffickers," he says. "Itsa big policy
issue: How much dope will get through if there is no interdiction?"
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