U.S. TEACHES PERU TO PLUG RIVER OF DRUGS

IQUITOS, Peru - As Seaman Walter Fitzgerald gunned his Boston Whaler boat
out into the Amazon and gently pulled alongside a floating dock as if
approaching another vessel, he kept up a steady stream of talk to his
Peruvian counterparts, explaining each step in nearly flawless Spanish.

Nearby, on land, Warrant Officer Marc Shifanelli crouched in the thick
jungle underbrush, demonstrating to a group of Peruvian police how to
conduct small-unit patrols, including how to carry their AK-47 assault
rifles, with constant reminders not to "aim at anything you don't want to
destroy."

Fitzgerald, a U.S. Navy SEAL, and Shifanelli, of the U.S. Army Special
Forces, are part of a group of 30 specialized American military instructors
implementing one of the most ambitious counterdrug programs the Pentagon
has ever undertaken in Latin America.

Growing U.S. Role

Special forces from the Army, Navy and Marines are training and equipping a
specialized Peruvian counterdrug unit that would operate on water and land
to cut off the growing flow of cocaine that makes its way from Peru to
Colombia on the Amazon, and then on to the United States and Europe.

Of the 30 trainers, 15 are Navy SEALs, 9 are with the Army's Special
Forces, 4 are Marines and 2 are with the Coast Guard. All speak Spanish
competently.

The river training program, begun last month and estimated to cost $60
million over the next five years, underscores the growing U.S. role in
Peru, a country that is scheduled to receive about $110 million in U.S. aid
this year, one of the largest amounts in the hemisphere.

While the United States has long been involved in counterdrug activities
around Latin America, the U.S. military mission in Peru is unprecedented,
according to U.S. and Peruvian officials. In addition to the involvement of
the military, U.S. officials said, the CIA is slated to provide the
Peruvian trainees - drawn from the country's navy, marines and anti-drug
police - with specialized training.

"This is our most robust effort in terms of the actions we have been
involved in, in terms of people and resources," said Lt. Col. Byron
Conover, spokesman for the U.S. Southern Command, which is responsible for
U.S. military programs in Latin America. "Our role is a supporting one, but
a very robust supporting one."

U.S. officials acknowledge that the trainers face some risk operating in
this area, once a designated "red zone" where Marxist rebels operated. Now,
however, the main threat is seen as coming from drug traffickers, so the
trainers are not allowed to participate directly in counterdrug missions.

Success Against Trafficking

The river course, which graduated its first class of 63 on April 4, not
only marks a new level of involvement for the U.S. military in anti-drug
efforts in the Andean region, which produces the world's cocaine supply. It
also indicates a significant shift in allocating resources to combat the
way traffickers have altered the routes they use to get coca paste to
Colombia, where it is made into cocaine hydrochloride.

The American trainers here supplement a force of 35 U.S. troops permanently
stationed at one of the region's most important radar bases, located a few
minutes down the river from the training center.

Built in 1996, the heavily fortified radar installation, surrounded by
sandbags, barbed wire and the latest motion-detection sensors, is an
important link in helping the Peruvian air force track flights across the
region.

The two bases form the heart of U.S.-Peruvian intelligence cooperation,
which both sides say has led to Peru having more success against drug
trafficking than any other country in the region.

A key reason the United States is willing to share drug intelligence with
the Peruvian navy and air force, when it largely declines to do so in other
countries, such as Colombia and Mexico, is the lack of corruption, U.S.
officials said.