Defeating the guerrilla group Sendero Luminoso (SL) is to be the cornerstone of US-Peru collaboration, the head of the US Southern Command, Air Force General Douglas Fraser, announced during his recent trip (3-6 October) to Peru. Sendero Luminoso has been a long-time foe of the Peruvian state and a thorn in the side of the US’s regional counternarcotics policy. Now that Peru plans to both militarise as well as help boost rural development in the trouble spots of the Valley of the Ene and Apurímac Rivers (Vrae) and the Upper Huallaga Valley, US financial security and development assistance will become increasingly important.
Traditional anti-coca policies of forced eradication and criminalisation have not swayed most illegal coca producers in these regions to stop growing this crop. The new policy [WR-11-36], taking parts of ‘mano dura’ and ‘mano suave’ and mixing these together in line with local priorities, has already earned the Peruvian government greater financial assistance from the US. The Peruvian government claims it is going to create incentives to grow other cash crops and direct cash subsidies will be offered to those opting out of illicit coca production.
The US-Peru security assistance plan 2007-2012, signed under the previous government, outlines a total grant aid spending of US$3.5bn. This sum covers all areas of direct counternarcotics assistance ranging from international narcotics control and law enforcement and section 1004 counter drug assistance to NADR anti-terrorism assistance and professional military training exchanges. Overall, US security assistance has been diminishing since 2007, but non-security aid through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has been growing, to a pledged programme grant total of US$4.5bn by 2012. The US is increasingly looking to link development assistance to a country’s performance in counternarcotics policy.
General Fraser visited the Vrae, one of the few international figures to have done so; he also called in on soldiers wounded in the latest attack by Sendero Luminoso (Daily Briefing, 15 September). Fraser said at his 4 October press conference that Sendero Luminoso was a joint problem requiring joint solutions. “We are committed to work hard with Peru and the region to confront these challenges, including threats to security from groups such as Sendero”, he said.
Even Peru’s recent purchase of eight MI-171Sh helicopters from Russia (Daily Briefing, 11 October) didn’t ruffle US feathers; Fraser stated that each government was free to equip itself with whatever hardware it considered necessary. Peruvian officials say that the MI-171Sh fleet were purchased with the aim of being put into combat immediately in the Vrae as additional support to on-the-ground troops [WR-11-38].
One of Foreign Minister Rafael Roncagliolo’s first jobs was to try and get the US non-military aid to Peru increased. On 26 September, changes to amendment No. 6 of the Grant Agreement to Peru from USAID, to provide economic assistance, development aid and humanitarian assistance in support of its foreign policy objectives, was signed by Roncagliolo and a USAID representative at the Torre Tagle Palace in Lima. This gave Peru US$60m in extra economic and social development assistance. According to USAID’s figures, some US$32.3m of the total US$87.6m budgeted for 2011 will be destined to alternative development.
USAID allocation to Peru as disbursed
|
Fiscal year |
Millions US$ |
|
2000 |
112.40 |
|
2002 |
152.00 |
|
2004 |
112.29 |
|
2006 |
83.81 |
|
2008 |
80.87 |
|
2010 |
80.62 |
- US sends mixed messages, says Moscow
On 10 October Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at an international forum on the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDG): “We find it difficult to understand why our [US] partners do not want the international security assistance force in Afghanistan to deal with it [Afghan drug threat]. They say that it would not solve the problem because the eradication of opium and poppy plantations in Afghanistan would create problems for agricultural production. Yet, for some reason, the very same partners see the destruction of coca plantations in Colombia and other Latin American countries is an absolute priority".
