Vol. 72/No. 29      July 21, 2008

Under New Horizons-Peru 2008, Continuing Promise, and other programs, troops from the U.S. Air Force, Army, and Navy will be used to provide medical, dental, and other services to the population, as well as build water wells, clinics, schools, and other buildings. The U.S. military uses these programs to familiarize its troops with and collect detailed knowledge of a region, as well as to give cover to military operations.

The military units will be deployed to Ayacucho—where production of coca leaf is concentrated and activity by remnants of the Maoist guerrilla group Shining Path continues—and two other locations along the coast.

The presence of the U.S. military has met opposition from political groups and trade unions who say the growing U.S. intervention is directed at workers’ and peasants’ protests.

"Why do we have to have U.S. troops come to open a few water wells, build a few classrooms and three clinics, if there are qualified Peruvian personnel who can do it?" asked Juana Huancahuari, a Nationalist Party congresswoman representing Ayacucho. "If they are coming in a humanitarian mission, why do they bring four Chinook combat helicopters?"

Peru's minister of defense Antero Flores defended the decision saying that only a small number of U.S. military personnel will be armed and that the rest are doctors and engineers.

In mid-June, U.S. Marines participated in a 10-day military training exercise along with their counterparts from Peru and Colombia in the Peruvian region of Inquito.

A group of organizations in Ayacucho called protests for July 8-9 to demand the withdrawal of the U.S. troops. The actions will coincide with other protests against the rising cost of living and government economic policies.
 
 
Related articles:
U.S. troops out of Afghanistan
U.S., Pakistan widen war in Afghanistan border area  
 
 
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home