From: Colombian Labor Monitor <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: Fri, 27 Apr 2001 12:24:13 -0500 (CDT)
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: U.S. Rep. McKinney on Killed Missionaries
Drug War Claims Two More
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Jon Fremont
April 26, 2001 (202)225-1605
Email:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Washington DC- Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney expressed dismay regarding
the death of two Americans killed in Peru last Friday. A U.S. radar plane
operated by a private military company gave Peru's air force the location of
a plane carrying American missionaries, which Peru shot down. The attack on
the seaplane by a Peruvian fighter Friday killed Veronica Bowers and her
infant daughter.
"The CIA, Pentagon, and State Department are all blaming each other and an
American baby and mother are dead. When the Soviets shot down KAL 007, the
US called it an unconscionable attack on a commercial plane. Now that the
US has been caught doing the same thing its response is much more timid,"
McKinney said.
The United States began providing radar-tracking information to Peru and
Colombia in 1990. The program was suspended in 1994 due to concerns that
innocent civilians could be accidentally killed. But President Bill Clinton,
under strong pressure from his administration and from members of Congress
who accused him of lacking a tough anti-drug policy, worked to reinstate the
agreements
"Reports indicate that 100 planes have been shot down in the area. Shooting
before asking questions seems the tried and true policing method exported by
the US. It is morally reprehensible that the US would serve as the judge,
jury, and executioner of suspected drug runners. The tragic deaths of
Veronica Bowers and her 7-month old daughter, Charity, amount to
extrajudicial killings sanctioned by US drug policy in Latin America,"
McKinney said.
Despite tens of years and billions of dollars spent on eradicating drugs at
their source in Latin America, illegal substances have never been cheaper or
easier to obtain in the US.
"How many more innocent people must die before we realize the only rational
way to deal with the drug problem is to focus on rehabilitation, education,
and treatment in our own country and crop substitution and economic
development projects abroad. At the very least, Americans could sleep well
knowing their tax dollars were being spent in their own communities, and to
help other communities, rather than on military campaigns and toxic spraying
that lead to the senseless deaths and internal displacement of innocent men,
women, and children," McKinney concluded.
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