NO FARC IN PERU

Allow me to express my appreciation for your editorial meeting last week
with the foreign ministers of Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru and for
the subsequent editorial, "The message from the Andes." I also appreciate
the news coverage you have given to the Andean Trade Preferences Act - a
matter of crucial importance to the economies of the four Andean countries.

I should also like to point out an inaccuracy in your Feb. 15 editorial.
You state that while the foreign minister of Peru, Diego Garcia Sayan,
denied in a meeting with your editorial board last week that the FARC
guerrillas from Colombia have penetrated, or are penetrating, Peruvian
territory, I had said the contrary during a previous meeting with the
editorial board of your paper. According to the editorial, I said that the
FARC are assisting Peruvian guerrillas with arms and poppy seeds.

If you review the records of our conversation, what I said is that drug
traffickers are returning to Peru because of the absence of aerial
interdiction and the success of the anti-drug programs in the countries of
the region, among other factors. At no time did I say that FARC had
penetrated Peruvian territory or were aiding the Shining Path guerrilla
movement with arms or poppy seeds. What I said on that occasion - and you
cited it verbatim in your Dec. 30 editorial "Terrorism down south" - is
that "As we succeed in fighting drugs and terrorism in Colombia ...
drug-traffickers are trying to come back to Bolivia and Peru."

Thank you for allowing me to clarify what I am sure was an involuntary
misunderstanding.

ALLAN WAGNER, Ambassador of Peru, Embassy of Peru, Washington