Source: Wire
Pubdate: Mon, 20 Jul 1998

BRISK TRADE EXPOSES PERU ANTI-DRUG MODEL

Sitting in his bare office near the remote Colombian border, narcotics
agent Maj. Renato Solis is in the front line of Peru's globally acclaimed
"revolution" against drugs - and clueless about what to do. A frustrated
Solis is outnumbered by drug traffickers, Colombian paramilitaries and
suspicious villagers.

His efforts to patrol this no-man's land in the Amazon expose the fragility
of Peru's image as the world's model drug-fighting nation.

Solis, with two dozen poorly paid officers, one radio and a boat, polices
310 miles of Putumayo River. Experts say the region is a main route for
hundreds of tons of semi-processed coca leaves.

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Checked-by: (Joel W. Johnson)