FOLLOW-UP REPORTING ON PERUVIAN MILITARY

S E C R E T LIMA 003782 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 12/05/2017 TAGS: PINR MOPS PGOV PINS PE SUBJECT: FOLLOW-UP REPORTING ON PERUVIAN MILITARY DEVELOPMENTS (C-AL7-02193) REF: A. STATE 158693 ¶B. LIMA 3764 Classified By: Charge James Nealon, for Reasons 1.4(C) ¶1. (S/NF) Post appreciates the feedback offered by Washington analysts in ref A and offers the following responses to questions raised regarding the status of Plan VRAE. (Ref A questions regarding internal political and congressional matters will be answered septel.) ¶2. (C) Has the Peruvian government taken any action to carry out Plan VRAE? Embassy contacts report the GOP has spent $80 million in the past 11 months on Plan VRAE to improve existing facilities, build new bases, and upgrade equipment. But local leaders in the departments of Junin and Ayachucho say the money has not brought increased security, pointing out that Army patrols rarely extend beyond the immediate vicinity of the bases. Analysts familiar with Plan VRAE say its success depends on the political will of the Ministry of Defense to engage agressively with terrorists and narco-traffickers, actions the Peruvian Army has not taken so far. Military officials sometimes defend their hesitancy by underscoring the uncertain legal environment in which they operate and the possibility that decisive counter-insurgency actions will be followed by allegations of human rights abuses. In a meeting with Emboffs November 28, Minister of the Interior Alva Castro accused the army of reaching an accommodation with narco-traffickers and their Shining Path allies, and he doubted significant progress would be made in combating the influence of subversive groups in the region -- see ref B. ¶3. (C) How is the government of Peru planning to use its recent arms acquisitions? Officials at all levels of the Peruvian military -- including the Minister of Defense -- privately express concern about Chilean arms purchases and the need for Peru to respond (at least in a face-saving manner) to Chile's vastly superior firepower and conspicuous military equipment advantages across the board. But the GOP remains focused on its primary goal of combating the internal threat to sovereignty posed by transnational criminal and terrorist groups. The GOP's recent arms acquisitions are designed to meet this goal by increasing the ability of the armed forces to control Peruvian territory and by developing a rapid-reaction force able to respond quickly to emergencies. ¶4. (C) What was the Peruvian Government's goal for the arms summit that took place November 24 and 25? The event, SITDEF 2007 (Salon International Tecnologia Defensa),was more of a technology exhibition than a summit, attended by arm sellers from Israel, South Korea, China, and Russia, among others. The GOP hoped to use the event to highlight the modernization efforts underway in the Peruvian military and to gain a higher international profile for GOP efforts to acquire military technology. NEALON