Peru tries to reach an agreement with the United States as soon as possible to stop the departure of drug planes, when coca cultivation grows in areas such as the border with Brazil, the country’s anti-drug chief said Wednesday.
Ricardo Soberón, head of the state agency Devida, stated that the efforts of coca-producing countries such as Peru have been difficult due to the growing global demand for cocaine and that is why it is necessary to review the “principle of shared responsibility” with consumer nations such as the United States. Joined.
President Pedro Castillo’s government announced in March that it was seeking an agreement with the United States that would allow security forces to receive support for the “non-lethal” interception of planes transporting illegal drugs.
Washington suspended its support for the interdiction of small planes two decades ago after the Peruvian Air Force shot down a plane, mistaking it for one belonging to drug traffickers, killing two US citizens.
“The process now is strictly one of bilateral negotiation, the Peruvian Foreign Ministry has it in its hands, so we hope to finish that as soon as possible,” Soberón said in a conference with the foreign press at the Devida agency.
The official said he hopes to travel to Washington in August or early September to meet with US State Department officials to “point out the limitations of non-lethal interdiction.”
“We must maximize it in such a way that it can allow timely, rapid and efficient action by the Peruvian, Colombian, Brazilian, Bolivian and Paraguayan authorities so that the information becomes a projectile that allows the seizure of the drug and the capture of the plane,” he said.
Representatives from the US embassy in Lima were not immediately available for consultation.
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