[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 90 (Tuesday, June 26, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6917-S6918]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              THE REGIONAL IMPORTANCE OF ECUADOR AND PERU

  Mr. GRASSLEY. Mr. President, I rise today to highlight the countries 
of Ecuador and Peru within the context of the Andean Regional 
Initiative, ARI, the FY-2002 follow-on strategy to Plan Colombia. 
Although the ARI encompasses 7 South American counties, I want to focus 
today on these two important United States allies. Our hemispheric 
counterdrug efforts must be viewed within a regional context, or else 
any successes will be short-term and localized, and may produce 
offsetting or even worse conditions than before we started. Narcotics 
producers and smugglers have always been dynamic, mobile, innovative, 
exploitative, and willing to move to areas of less resistance. I am 
concerned that spillover, displacement, or narcotrafficker shifts, from 
any successful operations within Colombia, has the real potential to 
negatively affect Peru and Ecuador. I want the United States actions to 
help--and not hurt--our allies and this important region of our own 
hemisphere.
  The State Department's June 2001 country program fact sheet reports 
that ``Ecuador has become a major staging and transshipment area for 
drugs and precursor chemicals due to its geographical location between 
two major cocaine source countries, Colombia and Peru. In recent 
months, the security situation along Ecuador's northern border--
particularly in the Sucumbios province, where most of Ecuador's oil 
wealth is located--has deteriorated sharply due to increased Colombian 
guerrilla, paramilitary, and criminal violence. The insecurity on 
Ecuador's northern border, if not adequately addressed, could have an 
impact on the country's political and economic climate. Sucumbios has 
long served as a resupply and rest/recreation site for Colombian 
insurgents; and arms and munitions trafficking from Ecuador fuel 
Colombian violence.''
  The Ecuador fact sheet continues ``[n]arcotraffickers exploit 
Ecuador's porous borders, transporting cocaine and heroin through 
Ecuador primarily overland by truck on the Pan-American Highway and 
consolidating the smuggled drugs into larger loads at poorly controlled 
seaports for bulk shipment to the United States and Europe hidden in 
containers of legitimate cargo. Precursor chemicals imported by ship 
into Ecuador are diverted to cocaine-processing laboratories in 
southern Colombia. In addition, the Ecuadorian police and army have 
discovered and destroyed cocaine-refining laboratories on the northern 
border with Colombia. Although large-scale coca cultivation has not yet 
spilled over the border, there are small, scattered plantations of coca 
in northern Ecuador. As a result, Ecuador could become a drug producer, 
in addition to its current role as a major drug transit country, unless 
law enforcement programs are strengthened.'' Finally, the

[[Page S6918]]

State Department concludes that ``Ecuador faces an increasing threat to 
its internal stability due to spillover effects from Colombia at the 
same time that deteriorating economic conditions in Ecuador limit 
Government of Ecuador, GOE, budgetary support for the police.''
  The State Department's March 2001 country program fact sheet reports 
that ``Peru is now the second largest producer of coca leaf and cocaine 
base. Peruvian traffickers transport the cocaine base to Colombia and 
Bolivia where it is converted to cocaine. There is increasing evidence 
of opium poppy cultivation being established under the direction of 
Colombian traffickers.'' The fact sheet continues ``[f]or the fifth 
year in a row, Peruvian coca cultivation declined from an estimated 
115,300 hectares in 1995 to fewer than an estimated 34,200 hectares in 
2000 (a decline of 70 percent since 1995). The continuing [now-
suspended] U.S.-Peruvian interdiction program and manual coca 
eradication were major factors in reducing coca leaf and base 
production.'' In addition, ``[t]hese U.S. Government supported law 
enforcement efforts are complemented by an aggressive U.S.-funded 
effort to establish an alternative development program for coca farmers 
in key coca growing areas to voluntarily reduce and eliminate coca 
cultivation. Alternative development activities, such as technical 
assistance and training on alternative crop production, are provided as 
long as the community maintains the coca eradication schedule. In Peru, 
activities include transport and energy infrastructure, basic social 
services (health, education, potable water, etc.), strengthened civil 
society (local governments and community organizations), environmental 
protection, agricultural production and marketing, and drug demand 
reduction.''
  With respect to Peru, I also encourage the Department of State to 
quickly report to Congress the findings on the tragic shootdown on 
April 20 of this year and the intended future of the air interdiction 
program.
  I encourage my colleagues, and the public, to be sensitive to the 
current delicate conditions and future developments in these countries. 
In addition, while I support the additional United States aid for 
Ecuador and Peru, as requested in the President's FY-2002 budget, for 
both law enforcement and many needed social programs, I remain 
concerned that our current efforts lack coherence or clear-sightedness. 
I will say again that I fervently want the United States actions to 
help--and not hurt--Colombia, Ecuador, and Peru, on this complicated 
and critical regional counterdrug issue. The goal is to make a 
difference--not make things worse or simply rearrange the deck chairs.

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