U.S. Set to Aid Brazil Drug Shootdown Plan-Officials
Washington is likely to help Brazil in its plan to shoot down planes suspected of smuggling drugs after determining it has enough safeguards to prevent accidental killings, senior U.S. officials said on Wednesday.
The air drug interdiction program is controversial because Peru's air force mistakenly fired on a small plane in 2001, killing a U.S. missionary and her daughter.
The Peruvian jet was alerted to the presence of the missionary plane by another plane carrying an American CIA-contracted crew and a Peruvian liaison officer.
The incident prompted Washington to cut off support for drug interdiction programs in Peru and Colombia until last year.When Brazil announced this year that it would start a similar program, the United States warned it might curtail cooperation.
But after a months-long review, the State Department has recommended President Bush support the plan, which would mainly involve sharing U.S. information about traffickers.
"The recommendation is to continue with the cooperation," said a senior U.S. official who asked not to be named.Unlike Peru and Colombia, Brazil does not need U.S. help to shoot down suspect planes because it has its own radars and fighters. But the country has benefited from U.S. tips about traffickers and routes in its Amazon jungle.
The decision, welcomed by Brazil, coincided with a visit this week by Secretary of State Colin Powell to Latin America's largest nation.
Brazil had held off starting the program until the U.S. review, which concluded the plan has sufficient safeguards to prevent accidental killings and limit the liability of any U.S. personnel involved.
Brazilian officials estimate there are more than 4,000 unregistered small aircraft flying over the Amazon jungle, a remote area larger than the continental United States.
(From Reuters, October 07, 2004)
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