Lime. The Peruvian government announced this Saturday that it has resumed an agreement with the United States that will allow the interception of planes suspected of drug trafficking activities, after being suspended for 20 years due to an accident with an aircraft.
The president of the Council of Ministers, Alberto Otárola Peñaranda, said that the agreement will allow the air force of the Andean country to once again receive cooperation from the United States in terms of radars, intelligence, financing, communications, maintenance, training, as well as logistical support. , technical and administrative to strengthen actions against illicit drug trafficking.
“Yesterday the Minister of Defense (Jorge Chávez) confirmed that a good agreement was reached with the United States regarding air interdiction, (…) that support is going to resume, this veto was lifted and it is going to allow Peru to exercise and use of non-lethal aerial interdiction,” said the official, quoted by the Peruvian news agency, during a visit to the Operations Center of the Peruvian National Police.
Washington suspended its support for the interception of small planes two decades ago after the Peruvian Air Force shot down a plane mistaking it for one of drug traffickers, killing two US citizens.
“We are going to mark a before and after in the fight against organized crime and drug trafficking. At the request of President Dina Boluarte, we redouble our efforts to care for the safety of citizens,” the official wrote on Saturday on the Internet. social X, formerly Twitter.
Peru is, along with its neighbor Colombia, one of the largest producers of coca leaf and cocaine in the world, according to the United Nations.
In 2022, the cultivated area of coca leaf in Peru grew by 18% compared to the previous year to a new record figure, with greater relevance in protected lands or in areas of indigenous peoples of the Amazon near Brazil and Colombia.
The cultivation of the coca leaf is legal in Peru for its traditional use and is chewed for energy or consumed with a tea to avoid effects of altitude. However, it is estimated that 90% of the harvest ends up in the hands of drug traffickers, according to analysts.
