Drug War Casualties

* “CIA Misidentified Plane Downed in Peru as Possible Drug Runner” (April 23) said that the 1994 law enacted by Congress limits the assistance provided by the U.S. in foreign drug interdiction to countries with procedures in place to protect against innocent loss of life. In the United States, even suspected drug runners are innocent until convicted in court and, if convicted, they still would not face execution.

In the recent incident in Peru, the CIA-assisted Peruvian military had no evidence that the plane carried drugs yet shot to kill after failing to get a response from the civilian plane to communications in Spanish over military radio frequencies. It was only the pilot’s heroic water landing after sustaining machine gun wounds to his legs that averted even worse loss of life. If the Peruvian jet pilot and his superiors were just following procedure, then the U.S. clearly should withdraw our support of Peru’s inept war on drugs.

GARY PAUDLER

Summerland