But the details of the Peruvian incident, and its timing, are exposing just how unbalanced our strategies in the war on drugs have become. The U.S. government and local officials are still debating details, but in essence, CIA employees spotted a plane carrying the Bowers family and a pilot and alerted the Peruvian military of their suspicions the flight may have been carrying drugs. The Peruvian air force did not make radio contact with the plane before shooting it down. Just as we supported military intervention in Peru, we are pushing forward in Colombia as well. Under Plan Colombia, we could strengthen the Colombian military's ties to right-wing militias tied to drug trafficking and massacres of civilians.
Farmers also charge that anti-cocoa chemical deforestation harms family food crops as well.
The Latin American leaders, including Guatemalan Nobel laureate Rigoberta Menchu and former Colombian Foreign Minister Rodrigo Pardo, asked that aid to Colombia target economic development, which would undercut one leg of the drug trade. While the U.S. government is prepared to spend billions on interdiction, we consistently underfund drug treatment. Today, a record 2 million Americans are in prison, a quarter for nonviolent drug crimes. That fact alone is having a ripple effect through America's towns, families, economies, even adding to controversies over voting rights. It must seem appealing to imagine that we can fight the drug war safely on other people's turf, far from our own streets.