Attacking The Source

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The military aspects of the plan, however, are stirring the most misgivings. To fulfill Bush's campaign promise to "attack drugs at the source," more and heavier U.S. weapons would be dispatched to Colombia, and more arms and men to Peru and Bolivia. In Colombia drug gangsters killed three officials last week: gunmen assassinated Senator Luis Carlos Galan, a leading presidential candidate; the Medellin provincial police chief, and a local judge. The focus of the U.S. effort, though, would be on Peru, where attempts to eradicate the coca crop have been stalled since February because of attacks by guerrillas and traffickers. Some 34 eradication workers have been killed in the Upper Huallaga Valley since 1983. In May a DEA agent, five State Department contract employees and two Peruvian eradication officials died in a plane crash there. Until six months ago, the Peruvian army kept to its barracks in the Upper Huallaga, leaving Sendero insurgents free to terrorize the local populace. Now the army, trying to fight the guerrillas first, is ignoring the traffickers.

While the presence of U.S. military personnel in any Latin American nation is always a sensitive issue, Peruvian military leaders are desperate to turn back Sendero guerrillas. "I will take help from anyone who offers it," says a top Peruvian officer. In fact, contingents of American Green Berets have already been sent to Peru and Bolivia to train antinarcotics police units in countersubversion and jungle warfare.

Even so, Bennett's plan has stirred qualms within the Administration. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh worries about militarizing antidrug operations abroad. Says a Justice Department official: "Law-enforcement officers are trained to extract criminals from society, to think about the rights of innocent people and to be mindful of the sovereignty of other nations. Military forces are trained to take on whatever gets in the way, to destroy the enemy."

Secretary of State James Baker is said to have expressed concern that American soldiers will be easy targets for terrorists. When aid to Peru came up at a Cabinet meeting, Baker reportedly asked his aides to pick another country, where the U.S. would not have to worry about casualties (they could not find one).

And at the Pentagon, the Andean initiative raises inevitable whispers about another endless war in the jungle against elusive guerrillas. Bennett aides reply that the American soldiers will not go out on raids or act as field commanders in the manner of U.S. military advisers in Viet Nam. Says an official: "Viet Nam showed us that we can't do in a country what a country doesn't want to do for itself. That doesn't mean we can't help democracies that are young and fragile to solve a problem."

The initiative may run into obstacles on the scene too. For one thing, Peruvian army officials say their primary mission is to defeat the Sendero movement. "Wherever drug traffickers get close to the guerrillas, we will get them," says one. "But don't ask us to go against the people growing coca." Another obstacle is corruption. DEA agents and Upper Huallaga residents say traffickers pay "landing fees" to certain police officials to use local airstrips.