The international donor community pledged $277 million to help Peru intensify its fight against drug production and trafficking at a November meeting in Brussels, Belgium. Of this amount, $140 million will be for new programs presented to the meeting, and $137 million will be used to support and consolidate existing programs.
The first meeting of the Consultative Group in Support of the Fight Against Drugs in Peru, organized by the IDB in conjunction with the Organization of American States, the European Commission and the U.N. International Drug Control Program, was held at the Brussels headquarters of the EC from Nov. 10 to 11, and attended by more than 100 delegates representing more than 40 countries and international institutions.
Donors' pledges will mainly take the form of donations and debt swaps. Their new support will enable the Peruvian government to target all coca-growing areas of the country, providing nationwide coverage for its Comprehensive Alternative Development and Prevention and Rehabilitation Programs. The IDB will finance the rehabilitation and improvement of trunk roads into these alternative development areas, as well as schools, health posts and other infrastructure projects.
Participants at the meeting examined different means for supporting a raft of new Peruvian anti-drug programs that will cost some $244 million over the period 1999-2003. In addition, Peru is already planning to invest $435 million over this five-year period in social support programs to reduce poverty among families whose livelihoods currently depend on coca. The goal is to promote alternative productive development in the coca-growing regions and enhance environmental conservation.
The Peruvian government has been implementing a comprehensive strategy to deal with illicit drug trafficking since 1990. During that time, the coca-producing area has been cut from 121,300 hectares to 69,000 hectares, many coca cultivation and trafficking groups have been broken up, and shipments have been reduced. As a result, coca growers' income has shrunk from $500 million in 1990 to $130 million last year-- with a concomitant exacerbation of poverty. During this period, Peru also has seen an increase in the domestic use of drugs, and the government is seeking international support to boost its efforts to counter this trend.
The Brussels meeting looked at alternative development programs in six new regions of Peru --Monzón, Tocache-Uchiza, Pozuzo-Palcazu, Satipo-Ene, Palmapampa and Tambopata-Inambari--whose total population of 280,000 is cultivating 20,600 hectares of coca and where 37,600 hectares of abandoned coca could be put back into production. The new programs will strengthen community organizations, build basic economic and social infrastructure such as health stations, classrooms, water services, rural roads, and power transmission; regularize property titles; support farm loans; protect the environment and promote sustainable forest production.
The Peruvian drug control agency Contradrogas will coordinate the alternative development program, which will be executed with the help of public, private and community development agencies in Peru.
Donors at the Brussels meeting praised the high priority given to the fight against drugs by the government of President Alberto Fujimori. "The Peruvian government has shown us that it is committed to continuing the program to suppress illegal drug trafficking, in order to achieve long-term benefits for Peru and for the international community," said one donor country representative, "despite the social cost that this entails in the short term."