LIMA, (Reuters) – Peru plans to focus on development rather than military force to curtail drug trafficking in the world’s most densely planted coca region, where it is battling the remnants of the Shining Path rebels, its new defense minister said yesterday.
Peru needs to invest in infrastructure and social programmes in the neglected Apurimac-Ene River Valleys (VRAE), Defense Minister Alberto Otarola said. At least 50 soldiers or police have been killed in the jungle region in the last two years.
“We believe the solution to the VRAE is political and not military,” said Otarola, who was appointed by President Ollanta Humala in a December cabinet shuffle.
Peru is already the world’s top coca producer, according to the United Nations, and it could soon surpass neighbouring Colombia as the top cocaine producer.
Otarola’s comments appeared to contradict critics who said Humala’s new cabinet, led by former military instructor Oscar Valdes, would lead to increased militarization.
Otarola said social programmes championed by Humala, a former army officer, including a minimum pension for all Peruvians over 65 and a college scholarship programme, would reach the VRAE. Roads and a hydroelectric dam will also be built there, he said.
“The state has turned its head the other way, but starting with this government things will change in the VRAE,” he told foreign journalists.
