LIMA: Peru, the world’s No 1 cocaine producer, has voted unanimously to allow military planes to shoot down flights suspected of carrying drugs
The Peruvian congress voted unanimously on Thursday to authorise military planes to shoot down suspected drug flights, which police say smuggle more than a tonne of cocaine to Bolivia daily.
The legislation passed 89-0 and President Ollanta Humala is expected to sign it into law.
Neighbouring drug-producing and transit nations, including Colombia, Brazil, Venezuela and, most recently, Bolivia, already permit planes suspected of carrying drugs to be shot down. But with the exception of Venezuela and Honduras, such events have been rare in recent years and tend to follow strict guidelines.
Peru halted aerial interdiction after an air force pilot killed a United States missionary and her child in a 2001 attack on a plane wrongly identified as carrying drugs. The US had backed Peru’s shootdown policy in the 1990s under a CIA-administered program but withdrew its support after that incident.
Since Peru became the world’s No 1 cocaine producer in 2012, about half of its drugs have been flown on small planes to Bolivia.
In Thursday’s debate, Emiliano Apaza, the chairman of Congress’ defence committee, said the Peruvian military recorded 222 small plane flights carrying 77 tons of cocaine out of the coca-producing Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro river valleys to Bolivia between 10 May and 16 August.
When he took office in 2011, Humala vowed to make combating drug trafficking a priority. His government has eradicated a record number of coca fields but has been criticised for seizing a relatively small amount of cocaine and leaving the air bridge to Bolivia undisturbed.
The new legislation will not be a panacea for halting drug trafficking, drug policy analyst Pedro Yaranga said.
He noted that Humala had installed just one radar system for detecting drug flights since taking office — in June. Peru needed to put in place three or four more and dedicate the planes and fuel required in order to reduce drug flights effectively, Yaranga said.