SUCCESS IN PERU

To the Editor:

In a July 31 editorial you suggest that Bolivia and Peru have had some
success with a "mixed strategy" of fumigation of coca crops "combined with
help to bring roads and electricity to coca areas, so peasants have
alternatives."

The Peruvian Government does not spray coca fields or use any chemicals to
reduce production. Our policy is to eradicate coca manually, pulling the
plants out of the ground.

Peru has reduced the area of coca cultivation by 56 percent since 1995.
Progress was due to a strategy that combined interdiction and alternative
development to provide incentives to the farmers to shift to legal crops.

But since last year, traffickers have resorted to new routes and methods to
smuggle drugs out of Peru, and coca prices have increased, jeopardizing the
strategy. To reverse this situation, Peru needs more cooperation from the
United States and the international community.

ALFONSO RIVERO Ambassador of Peru Washington, Aug. 10, 1999