Country Snapshot

Population: 28,409,897 (July 2003 est.) Size, comparable to U.S.: slightly smaller than Alaska Per Capita GDP, not adjusted for PPP (year): $2,126 (2002) Income, wealthiest 10% / poorest 10%:  51.2/1.6 (1996) Population earning less than $2 a day: 41.4% Ranking, Transparency International Corruption Perceptions Index: 59 out of 133 Defense Expenditure as a percentage of GDP: 1.7% (2001) Size of armed forces: 115,000 (2001-2002) U.S. military personnel present: 32 (2003)

Peru is second only to Colombia among recipients of U.S. military and police assistance. As in Colombia, most of this aid is transferred through counternarcotics programs. U.S. funding during the past few years has focused particularly on efforts to help Peru interdict drug trafficking on its waterways.

The Riverine Program

The Peruvian Air Force's U.S.-supported "air bridge denial" program, which forces or shoots down planes thought to be trafficking drugs, is credited with reducing the aerial transfer of coca between Peru and processing sites in Colombia. As traffickers have relied instead on surface routes, U.S. counternarcotics assistance has begun emphasizing interdiction on Peru’s thousands of miles of rivers.

According to former U.S. Ambassador to Peru Dennis Jett, several programs, often referred to as the "riverine program," support this objective. In 1998 the riverine program was supported by the following funding sources:

• $4.83 million from the Defense Department under Section 1033 of the 1998 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA);
• $6.875 million from the Defense Department under of Section 1004 of the 1991 NDAA. This amount includes U.S. Southern Command “Ground Based End Game Operations (GBEGO),” U.S. Marine Corps Riverine training deployments and Special Operations Forces (SOF) Riverine support;
  ("End Game Operations" are activities that involve direct engagement with drug traffickers, such as intercepting planes, boarding boats or shutting down drug-processing laboratories.)
• $3 million in Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) funding; and
• $1.25 million from the State Department’s International Narcotics Control (INC) program, through the Narcotics Affairs Section in the U.S. Embassy.¹

The riverine program began in 1998 with the inclusion of Section 1033 in the 1998 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). This five-year authorization allows up to $20 million a year to be spent on riverine programs in Colombia and Peru. Supported by this funding, in 1998 Peru opened a new Navy and Police riverine training center in the Amazon port of Iquitos, which is also the site of a U.S. ground-based radar facility.² As of September 1999, the new riverine center had trained over 300 personnel from Peru’s National Police and Navy. According to Gen. Charles Wilhelm of the U.S. Southern Command, “Graduates have been assigned to the first of 12 Riverine Interdiction Units (RIUs) or to locally constructed motherships that will support sustained operations by the RIUs."³

In its report accompanying the 1999 Defense Appropriations bill, the House Appropriations Committee recommended that $8 million be used to “lease or procure aircraft that would provide reconnaissance in support of Colombian and Peruvian counter-drug intelligence needs, as well as directly support operations against riverine/coastal drug shipments and drug laboratories."⁴

Other Counternarcotics Support

U.S. counternarcotics support in Peru extends well beyond the new riverine program. Much counternarcotics funding is transferred through the State Department’s International Narcotics Control (INC) program, managed by State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL). A chief recipient of aid through this program is the Peruvian National Police's Anti-Drug Directorate (DINANDRO). According to its 2000 Congressional Presentation, the INC program “provides essentially all costs except salaries for training, equipping, and operating DINANDRO units and personnel, including units which are deployed on the rivers, units investigating trafficking, financial crimes and chemicals trafficking and a major violators unit."⁵

The INC program also covers operating and maintenance costs for the Aviation Division of Peru’s National Police (DIPA). The program funds pilots, aircrews and support personnel for about seventeen State Department-owned UH-1H “Huey” helicopters and eleven to fourteen Peruvian-owned (and Russian-made) Mi-17 helicopters. Together, these helicopters support ground-based coca-eradication and other law enforcement activities. Other forms of support to the DIPA, according to the Congressional Presentation, include “fuel, maintenance, hangars and warehousing, aircraft rental when needed, and operational support for DIPA personnel."⁶

While police funding makes up a significant portion of its budget, the bulk of the INC program’s regular 1999 funding in Peru -- $30 million out of $45 million -- pays for alternative development programs that encourage coca growers to switch to legal crops. Alternative development’s share drops, however, with the addition of a $31,940,000 supplemental appropriation for INC that was included in the Western Hemisphere Drug Elimination Act.⁷ Only $5 million of this additional funding went to alternative development; of the rest, $6 million paid for air, riverine and eradication operations and $20.9 million funded modifications, including podded radar, for A-37 “Dragonfly” attack aircraft.⁸ "INL intends to use some of the Counternarcotics Supplemental funding to assign light utility aircraft to the Peru counternarcotics program, to support Peruvian National Police ground, riverine, and helicopter operations at forward operating locations,” said a State Department official in March 1999. “We will also replace or upgrade UH-1H helicopters for use in the country."⁹

A counternarcotics drawdown provided $5.3 million in aid in September 1998. According to the Memorandum of Justification accompanying the drawdown, the assistance was intended to "furnish the Peruvian National Police, Air Force, and Coast Guard with training, field aviation support equipment, airfield support vehicles, field maintenance shelters, individual field and protective gear, field rations, water purification kits, ammunition, explosives and weapons¹⁰ In September 1999, the President further used the drawdown authority to provide another $4 million in assistance to Peru, which was projected to include aviation related items and a Bailey bridge.¹¹

According to Ambassador Jett, the Defense Department’s “Section 1004” counternarcotics authorization provided the following assistance to Peru in 1998 (note that some duplication exists with the riverine program discussed above):

• Intelligence Programs: $491,000 for a Tactical Analysis Team. 
• Training Programs: $2,925,000 for U.S. Southern Command Ground Based End Game Operations (GBEGO), United States Marine Corps Riverine deployments and Special Operations Forces Riverine and counter-drug support.
• Infrastructure: $7,593,000 for Ground Based End Game Operations (GBEGO).¹²

Training and Exercises

The United States offers substantial training to the Peruvian military. While only ninety-nine students were trained through the International Military Education and Training (IMET) program in 1998, another 284 were trained, mostly in the United States, under other funding authorities, including INC and Section 1004. To this must be added the approximately 353 reportedly trained in Peru by U.S. Special Forces, for a total of at least 736 Peruvian military personnel trained in 1998.

According to the State Department’s 2000 Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, the IMET portion of the training aims “to improve military professionalism and capabilities by providing military and civilian defense professionals training that reinforces the principle of civilian rule."¹³

Almost all Special Forces training deployments to Peru have counternarcotics missions. Most of these occurred in Iquitos, a central location for the riverine program. Official documents describe the training’s purpose as "in support of National Security Strategy to reduce [the] flow of drugs to the United States" and to “teach doctrine on Joint/Combined Riverine Operations in support of the U.S. national policy of the war on drugs."¹⁴ One Special Forces training deployment took place in 1998 under the Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) program. Company “C” of the U.S. Army’s Third Battalion, Seventh Special Forces Group, trained with thirty-one Peruvian National Police in marksmanship, sniper, integrated assault, human rights, and other skills.¹⁵

Peru hosted eleven Humanitarian and Civic Assistance (HCA) deployments in 1998. Seven delivered medical, dental or veterinary assistance to the provinces of San Martín, Portillo and Loreto, and four carried out well-digging projects in Loreto.¹⁶ Peru participates with the United States in joint military exercises as well. In 1998, it was the site of a New Horizons Disease Intervention exercise, while taking part in Unitas and United Counterdrug. In 1999, Peru participated in the Fuerzas Aliadas Humanitarian exercise.

Other Programs

The Military Observer Mission Ecuador-Peru (MOMEP) was an international peacekeeping force established to oversee the cease-fire agreement that ended a brief 1995 border conflict between Ecuador and Peru. With the border dispute resolved in October 1998, the United States set a final withdrawal date of June 30, 1999 for the U.S. military personnel serving as part of the mission. The State and Defense Departments are planning to expand their demining assistance programs to the border area in 2000.¹⁷

Peru received U.S. licenses for $19,284,136 in Direct Commercial Sales (DCS) of weapons and defense equipment in 1998. Small arms and ammunition accounted for most of these potential purchases.¹⁸ Foreign Military Sales (FMS) deliveries totaled about $2 million in 1998, about half approved as counternarcotics related sales.¹⁹

Sources:

¹ Ambassador Dennis C. Jett, U.S. Ambassador to Peru, letter to Joy Olson in response to earlier inquiry, February 3, 1999.

² Jett.

³ Statement of General Charles E. Wilhelm, United States Marine Corps, Commander in Chief, United States Southern Command, Before the Senate Caucus on International Narcotics Control, September 21, 1999 <http://www.ciponline.org/colombia/wilhelm.htm>.

⁴ Committee Report accompanying the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 1999, House Appropriations Committee, Report 105-591, June 28, 1998.

⁵ United States, Department of State, Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation (Washington: March, 1999): 47 <http://www.state.gov/www/global/narcotics_law/fy2000_budget/latin_america.html>.

⁶ Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation  47.

⁷ Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation  50.

⁸ Bureau for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Fiscal Year 2000 Budget Congressional Presentation 46.

⁹ Rand Beers, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, testimony before the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee of the House International Relations Committee (Washington: March 3, 1999) <http://www.state.gov/www/policy_remarks/1999/990303_beers_hirc.html>.

¹⁰ United States, Department of State, "Memorandum of Justification for use of Section 506(a)(2) special authority to draw down articles, services, and military education and training," September 15, 1998.

¹¹ United States, Presidential Determination No. 99-43, Drawdown Under Section 506 (a) (2) of the Foreign Assistance Act to Provide Counter-Drug Assistance to Colombia, Peru, Ecuador and Panama, September 30, 1999 and working breakout of items requested.

¹² Jett.

¹³ Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000  920.

¹⁴ United States, Department of State, Department of Defense, Foreign Military Training and Defense Department Engagement Activities of Interest in Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999 (Washington: 1999).

¹⁵ Foreign Military Training and The Defense Department Engagement Activities of Interest in Fiscal Years 1998 and 1999.

United States, Defense Department, "Report on Training of Special Operations Forces for the Period Ending September 30, 1998," Washington, April 1, 1999.

¹⁶ United States, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Humanitarian and Civic Assistance Program of the Department of Defense Fiscal Year 1998 (Washington: March 1, 1999).

¹⁷ United States, Department of State, Office of Resources, Plans and Policy, Congressional Presentation for Foreign Operations, Fiscal Year 2000 (Washington: February 1999): 921.

¹⁸ United States, Department of State, U.S. Arms Exports: Direct Commercial Sales Authorizations for Fiscal Year 98 (Washington: July 1999): 79.

¹⁹ United States, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, 1998 , Defense Articles (Including Excess) and Services (Including Training) Furnished Foreign Countries and International Organizations Under the Foreign Military Sales Provisions of the Arms Export Control Act, Chapter 2 (Washington: July, 1999): 174-5.