Burned by Belarus, Now a War with Ecuador?

In 1996, Peru -- involved in border disputes with Ecuador -- arranged to purchase 12 MiG-25 fighter planes from Belarus, and a new day dawned in the Western Hemisphere weapons bazaar. The MiGs turned out to be in poor shape and essentially unusable. However, the damage was done; fearing that other Latin American countries might now buy planes and other advanced weaponry from Europeans rather than the U.S., President Clinton lifted Jimmy Carter's ban on the sale of advanced weapons to Latin America.

And now the U.S. is enthusiastically pushing to have South and Central American countries buy its fighter planes.

The U.S. supplied this radar for drug interdiction	President Fujimori literally keeps the army behind him

However, even without any fighter plane sales, the United States has since sold Peru over $108 million worth of weapons. Included in those sales are Cessna A-37 Dragonfly attack aircraft, C-26 surveillance planes, and river patrol craft. As is the case with many of our Latin American neighbors, we sell weapons to Peru in order to help fight the war on drugs; however, human rights groups suspect that these weapons may be used for other purposes -- such as war with Ecuador.

The Peruvian government also has frequent clashes with domestic guerrilla groups: the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) (responsible for holding hostages at the Japanese ambassador's residence in Lima before being killed by Peruvian security forces) and the Shining Path guerrillas (a Maoist group largely beaten into obscurity following the capture of their leader, Abimail Guzman, and the capture and/or killing of other group leaders).

U.S. arms sales in the Clinton years Direct government sales Government-approved sales (scale in millions of dollars)

The State Department's human rights report on Peru states that "the military and police were responsible for serious human rights abuses," continuing that "the army asserted that the detention of the suspected terrorists had been carried out in full compliance with human rights norms and standards. However, many of the detainees had been beaten, subjected to water torture, and suspended out of a helicopter while their abusers demanded confessions from them as well as the identities of other MRTA suspects. One detainee bled to death from a gunshot wound. The detainees were apparently innocent." (The State Department report does not, however, specify the type of helicopter used.)

-- Mat Honan

Flags courtesy of World Flag Database
Photos by AP/Wide World Photos