In response, the traffickers have gone to using Peru's network of rivers to move coca by barge and dugout canoe. Now, the United States wants to supply Peru's military with machine gun armed riverboats to carry the interdiction efforts into Peru's remote heartland.
Human rights advocates say they're alarmed at McCaffrey's plans, since the retired general was once head of the United States military's Southern Command, often associated with the regions dictators and military death squads. To make matters worse, Peru's military and civilian government are known to be infiltrated by drug traffickers at the highest levels.
In November General McCaffrey met with President Fujimori's personal advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos, who is often referred in that countries media as "Peru's Rasputin" and McCaffrey gave Montesinos the blessing of the Clinton administration, despite Montesinos' well documented links to drug traffickers and death squads.
Coletta Younger is a senior associate for the Washington Office on Latin America, she says Montesinos is a shady character with ties to the CIA.
Groups like the Washington Office on Latin America (WOLA) have been concerned for some time about Montesinos' links to the CIA. He is thought to be on the CIA payroll and we know that the CIA has developed a close working relationship with the SIN, ostensibly for counter-narcotics purposes. We have been asking for several years now for the US government to come clean on the precise nature of its relationship with Montesinos. That effort was stepped up several months ago in response to yet more evidence that emerged in Peru linking Montesinos to drug trafficking.
WOLA and Human Rights Watch sent a letter, and Senators Leahy and Dodd sent letters, but we have not received any response from the US National Security Council where those letters were directed. That lack of response is being interpreted in Peru as a blanket show of support by the US government for Vladimiro Montesinos. I think it's fair to allege US complicity in providing a mantle of protection to a very serious human rights violator.
DeRienzo: Mr. Montesinos was mentioned in the trial of a drug trafficker back in September of 1996, who was called El Vaticano. What happened with that case?
Younger: That case is still pending before a civilian court, no verdict has been reached. What happened begins with El Vaticano being captured several years ago as a result of a DEA sting operation in Colombia, actually carried out with Colombian police. He was extradited to Peru and immediately he was whisked away by the Peruvian military and tried in a military court for treason, for his relationship with the Shining Path in the Huellaga drug trafficking region of Peru. After years of pressure he was finally turned over to a civilian court to be tried on drug trafficking charges.
In the course of that public trial, which the military had been trying to avoid, El Vaticano came out with damaging information, including allegations that Vladimiro Montesinos received monthly payoffs from drug traffickers for tip-offs to anti-narcotics operations in the Huellaga region in 1991. However, those allegations have not led to anymore investigations. As soon as they were made Peruvian authorities moved into action to prevent any further investigation. The case has stagnated at this point and there is yet to be any verdict that I'm aware of on El Vaticano's case.
DeRienzo: A couple of months after the statements were made in open court accusing Mr. Montesinos of paying off drug traffickers the United States drug czar, retired General Barry McCaffrey made a trip to Peru where he actually met with Montesinos.
Younger: Precisely, and that has prompted further calls on the part of WOLA and other organizations for the US to come clean on its relationship with Montesinos. General McCaffrey arrived at the Presidential Palace for his meeting with Fujimori and his anti-narcotics advisor and in his FIRST public appearance since Fujimori was elected Montesinos arrived at the Palace, shortly after McCaffrey, and went in for the meeting. There were then pictures in the Peruvian newspapers of Montesinos participating in this meeting with a high level US official.
But to make matters worse, at the press conference the following day when asked about Montesinos' presence in meeting, General McCaffrey, instead of calling for an investigation, as all of us had insisted upon prior to his going to Peru, he reiterated previous US statements of full support of the Fujimori government and the US government's belief that there is no high level corruption in the Fujimori government. We believe that at least the US should be calling for an investigation.
DeRienzo: Do you have any specific responses to these charges?
Younger: There is clearly some sort of relationship with people in the US government, and my speculation would be they are within the CIA, who don't want the United States to be openly criticizing Montesinos. But there is a deeper problem for US international drug policy, with the present crisis in US-Peruvian relations it does not behoove the Clinton administration to be opening another pandora's box in Peru, which has also not had a stellar record in terms of drug policy.
Montesinos is one of many high level military and intelligence officials that are implicated in drug trafficking and my bet is that the Clinton administration would like to keep that under the rug for now.
DeRienzo: You mentioned that Montesinos has been associated with various human rights problems in Peru. What are some of the problems in Peru? Is it getting better? Is it getting worse?
Younger: Mr. Montesinos is widely believed to be the mastermind behind recent death squad activity in Peru. Particularly death squad activity that was taking place when Fujimori first came into office. The present human rights situation in Peru is complex, on the one had there has been a significant decrease in human rights violations, both on the part of guerrilla forces and on the part of the government. As the Shining Path threat has waned the overall levels of violence have also gone down.
But, when threats reemerge the Peruvian military is quick to resort to its old patterns of disappearances and extrajudicial executions. My fear is that in the wake of the hostage crisis presently underway in Peru we're likely to see a crackdown characterized by massive human rights violations along the lines of what we were seeing in 1991 and 1992. Secondly, the present human rights crisis is very much characterized by a lack of any form of democratic institution building in Peru. There is absolutely no possibility for due process or the rule of law.
There are specialized civilian and military courts that have been set up to try cases of treason and terrorism which have led to the imprisonment of hundreds, if not thousands of innocent Peruvians in absolutely horrendous conditions. Those conditions have been brought to light most recently by the hostage crisis. It's precisely the challenge of turning around an authoritarian government that confronts the human rights community in Peru today.
DeRienzo: Are we looking at a coca culture, and whether there are guerrillas on the left or the government on the right, they're all selling drugs to the United States?
Younger:If you can imagine, in poor country like Peru, everybody wants a piece of the pie. If you go into the coca and drug producing regions of Peru you find the Shining Path, the MRTA, the police, the military all trying to get in on the action. What happened in Peru is the military was quite effective in the early 1990's in replacing Shining Path as the main intermediary between the local population and Colombian drug traffickers.
There is no evidence that either the MRTA or Shining Path themselves have engaged in drug trafficking, but hey have certainly taken bribes and gotten protection money from traffickers over the years.
DeRienzo: What about the guerrillas, both Shining Path and MRTA? Your group has been critical of both and news reports in the Miami Herald say there's fear that Shining Path is far from gone and they're just biding their time.
Younger: It's fair to say the Shining Path is greatly weakened and does not pose the threat to the state that it did several years ago. But it is still very mush alive, if you talk to people working out in the shanty towns around Lima or in rural areas of the country ,the Shining Path is present. It's organizing and playing a very low key role, which means it continues to pose a problem for Peru.
People in Peru are extremely tired of violence at the present time. There have been incredible atrocities on all sides and there isn't popular support for guerrilla activity even among those sectors most amenable to those kind of actions because of this tremendous weariness. But those groups are there and as long as you have the incredible poverty and lack of democratic opportunity that you have today in Peru those groups will be able to continue to operate and could grow in the future.