ACTION REQUEST: RESOLVING PERU AIRPORT FEES

C O N F I D E N T I A L LIMA 001633 SIPDIS PENTAGON FOR USAF/XONP HQ USAF FOR A3SPI E.O. 12958: DECL: 10/02/2018 TAGS: EAIR PREL SNAR KREC MARR MOPS PE SUBJECT: ACTION REQUEST: RESOLVING PERU AIRPORT FEES BACKLOG, PART 2 REF: A. 08 LIMA 01283 ¶B. 06 LIMA 2226 ¶C. 06 STATE 84126 Classified By: Ambassador P. Michael McKinley, reasons 1.4 a& d ¶1. (U) This is an action request from the Ambassador, please see para 4. ¶2. (C) In order to resolve the backlog of charges for landing, parking and other user fees for official USG aircraft at certain Peruvian airports, the MFA has offered the same solution given in May 2006 (Ref A). Under this solution, the USG would not pay the fees for official aircraft at CORPAC-managed government airports under the bilateral counternarcotics agreement which exonerates USG for payment of these and other fees for counternarcotics-related flights. Current pending invoices total US$1,058,156.29. ¶3. (C) At issue is whether all the invoices from CORPAC received at Post are for fees charged on counternarcotics related flights. The Financial Management Office (FMO) conducted a random sampling of invoices to determine whether these fees were charged for counternarcotics related flights. Based on the available information, Post determined that approximately 73 percent of flights were readily identifiable as NAS or DEA, and thus clearly counternarcotics related. The remaining 27 percent of flights were mostly U.S. military flights, whose mission was not identifiable in the invoice, but which tend to support our counternarcotics effort. ¶4. (U) ACTION REQUEST: We request permission to respond to the MFA with a diplomatic note indicating that to the best of our knowledge and based on the available information, the invoices received represent fees for counternarcotics-related flights. The MFA has specifically requested that the diplomatic note be brief and to the point, and not address larger issues. With this diplomatic note in hand, the MFA will pay the outstanding fees. This will likely resolve the current backlog of fees for all CORPAC-managed Peruvian airports. We look forward to the pending C-175 authorization to resolve this issue on a more permanent basis, preventing future fees issues. We appreciate Department's continued assistance on these matters. MCKINLEY