Program description | Budget

Program description:

The 1999 Congressional Presentation for the State Department's International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs Bureau (INL) lists three objectives for narcotics control efforts in Peru:

• Build host nation capabilities in order to foster institutionalization of Peruvian policy-making and coordination and to "Peruvianize" all aspects of counternarcotics law enforcement;
• Reduce and ultimately eliminate the cultivation of coca and interdict trafficking of cocaine and cocaine base from Peru; and
• Support economic reforms that eliminate the illicit coca cultivation economy.¹

The INC program in Peru combines police and military assistance; support for intelligence-gathering and air and riverine interdiction; law-enforcement, customs and judiciary training; and demand reduction, development and alternative agriculture programs. The $50 million request for Peru in 1999 would represent a 100 percent increase over 1997 spending levels.

According to the State Department's 1999 Congressional Presentation, the Peru INC program's Counternarcotics Law Enforcement project is "structured around a mobile-basing concept which allows police and helicopters to conduct operations against major trafficking facilities from a variety of secure locations." The "mobile basing" strategy allows U.S.-owned helicopters to transport Peruvian police, along with U.S. law-enforcement advisors, "on counternarcotics operations throughout eastern Peru."² The project's main logistical and maintenance area is located in the town of Pucallpa, in Ucayali department.³

The Counternarcotics Law Enforcement project has a Narcotics Field Support subproject, which "provides essentially all costs," except salaries, associated with training, equipping, and operating the Anti-Drug Directorate (DIRANDRO) of the Peruvian National Police (PNP).⁴ DIRANDRO is Peru's lead counternarcotics law-enforcement agency.

A second project, Counternarcotics Aviation Support, pays for operation and maintenance of the Peruvian police force's air wing, the National Police Aviation Division (DIPA). As the 1999 Congressional Presentation indicates, this project:

Provides pilots, aircrews, and support personnel for approximately 17 Department of State-owned UH-1H helicopters and 11-14 Peruvian [Russian-made] Mi-17 helicopters which support coca eradication and law enforcement actions in the field. Aviation support funds the counternarcotics operations of the State-owned helicopters, providing fuel, maintenance, hangars and warehousing, aircraft rental when needed, and operational support for DIPA personnel.⁵

In Peru, the INC interregional aviation program supports the use of helicopters in crop eradication. Unlike Colombia, where U.S. contractors fly the program's U.S.-owned planes, "all missions are flown by pilots in the Peruvian National Police (PNP)."⁶

The Military Counternarcotics Support project is the INC program's main source of assistance to the Peruvian military. It provides Peru's air force and navy with training and limited logistical support, including "training for pilots and mechanics, facility improvements, spare parts for aircraft, boats and resources required to implement riverine commerce control on inland waterways and container shipping ports."⁷

While the military is charged with supporting police anti-drug efforts, the two institutions often work separately. In 1997, the General Accounting Office found that "coordination between the counternarcotics police and military units continues to be a problem" in Peru.⁸

The INC Narcotics Intelligence project supports a national narcotics intelligence center, which collects and analyzes information on narcotrafficking in Peru. A Customs Narcotics Interdiction project supports Peruvian Customs Service cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) through such limited logistic support as "vehicles, investigative and communications equipment, training, and operational support."⁹

Budget:

In 1997, the Peru INC program received a one-time transfer of $9.8 million from the Special Forfeiture Fund of the Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP). The funding supported Peruvian A-37 aircraft and police drug crop-eradication missions. This transfer is not reflected in this budget table.

(Thousands of U.S. dollars)

These footnotes are reproduced from the original Congressional Presentation documents:

1/ Does not reflect $9.8 mil transferred from ONDCP in FY 97 for Law Enforcement Support.

2/ In FY 96, Peru received $3 million in ESF [Economic Support Funds] for Counternarcotics projects.

3/ In FY 98, $14 million in AD [Alternative Development] money was transferred to USAID. Planned amount for FY 99 is $28 million.

4/ Supplemental funding for AD, air, riverine, eradication and A-37 support.

5/ In FY 1999, $32.4 million in AD money was transferred to USAID. Planned amount in FY 2000 is $25 million.

Sources:

¹ United States, Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation (Washington: Department of State: March 1998): 56.

² United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 1999 (Washington: March 1998): 1103.

³ Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 57.

⁴ United States, Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 1997 Budget Congressional Presentation (Washington: Department of State: March 1996): 42.

⁵ Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 58.

⁶ Department of State, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 1999 3.

Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 95.

⁷ Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 58.

⁸ United States, General Accounting Office, Drug Control: Long-Standing Problems Hinder U.S. International Efforts, document number GAO-NSIAD-97-75 (Washington, GAO, February 1997): 15 <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=waisback.access.gpo.gov&filename=ns97075.txt&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao> Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format <http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/useftp.cgi?IPaddress=waisback.access.gpo.gov&filename=ns97075.pdf&directory=/diskb/wais/data/gao>.

⁹ Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 57-8.

¹⁰ Department of State, Fiscal Year 1997 Budget Congressional Presentation 44.

¹¹ United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 1998 (Washington: March 1997): 54.

¹² Department of State, Fiscal Year 1999 Budget Congressional Presentation 60.

¹³ United States, Department of State, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation (Washington: Department of State: March 1999): 50.

¹⁴ United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2001 (Washington: March 2000): 58.