PERU, U.S. BUILDING ANTI-DRUG MILITARY TRAINING CENTER

LIMA (May 29) XINHUA - Peru and the United States are building an anti-drug
military training center in northwestern Peru to combat drug traffickers
using jungle waterways, press reports said Friday.

Located in the Amazon jungle of Iquitos, Loreto Department, the center will
offer training to Peruvian police forces and marine infantry troops.

Training will focus on controlling waterways as more drug traffickers
resort to the use of a complicated network of jungle rivers after effective
interdiction in the air by the Peruvian Air Force.

The center will house 140 students and may acquire a regional character in
the future. It is being built under a 60-million U.S. dollar, five-year
program agreed upon by the two countries in 1996.

The U.S. side builds the center and provides investment and military
instructors for it, the reports said.

Copyright © 1998 Cable News Network, Inc.

Checked-by: Richard Lake