U.S. So-called "War on Drugs" Escalates Against the People's War
From the CSRP's Peru Action & News, Fall 1998The U.S. made a significant escalation in its support for the Fujimori regime. On June 26, 1998 the U.S. and Peru inaugurated a “School for River Operations” built by U.S. military special operations forces at the Iquitos Naval Base, an important radar base where 35 U.S. troops are permanently stationed. The new U.S. funded $60 million program supplies Peru with an additional 30 personel, “specialized U.S. military instructors” consisting of fifteen Navy SEALS, nine Army Special Forces, four Marines and two Coast Guard officers.
The official story is that they are training Peruvian comandos in ground and river operations for “drug interdiction.” But the “war on drugs” has long been a cover for U.S. counter-insurgency in Latin America, especially in Peru. According to the Chicago Tribune (6/30/98), Peruvian soldiers “are learning to drive gray metal high-speed cruisers [patrol boats] equipped with machine guns, rocket launchers and night-vision scopes.” Many are veterans of the counter-insurgency war. In fact, Oswaldo Rio, a Peruvian marine who spent 18 years fighting against revolutionaries in Peru’s mountains and jungles, will also be an instructor. Perhaps most revealing: the area of operations will be the Huallaga River Valley and the Satipo/Ene River Valley—both places of fierce contention between PCP-led forces and the Fujimori regime.
