Word: bennette
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Later, the Drug Enforcement Administration people may be joined by U.S. military advisers. Under a plan promoted by William Bennett, director of national drug-control policy, the advisers are to train Peruvian soldiers in the art of "low-intensity" warfare against the Maoist Sendero Luminoso (Shining Path) guerrillas who control the Upper Huallaga. The insurgents finance their rebellion in part with fees from coca growers and refiners in the valley; U.S. intelligence reports say that lately they have directly gone into the coca-refining business...
...Bennett's plan is part of a broader Andean initiative that would expand economic and military aid not only to Peru -- source of more than half of the world's coca -- but also to Bolivia and Colombia. That initiative, in turn, is part of an overall antidrug plan that calls for stiffer penalties against casual users, such as loss of a driver's license or of federal student loans. Already the plan is raising questions in Congress and even parts of the Administration. As the battle against drugs escalates, so will the complicating side effects, particularly in U.S. foreign policy...
...first complication is cost. Bennett proposes to increase antidrug expenditures about $1 billion, with $100 million to $270 million going into a superfund to finance the Andean initiative. Bush last week embraced Bennett's plan in broad outline, calling it "balanced, decisive, effective and achievable." The President was vague about where he would get the money, though he spoke of "reallocation of resources," meaning shifting funds from other programs...
...Peru's gross domestic product shrank 28% in the first quarter of 1989, and inflation has been running at 25% a month. In Bolivia officials contend that they need & $300 million to $500 million a year to develop legitimate alternatives for coca-farming peasants. That is considerably more than Bennett proposes to spend on the whole region. Democratic Congressman Larry Smith of Florida voices a typical congressional opinion: "I'm wary of sending large chunks of money to any country that doesn't demonstrate the capability of being able to use it properly...
...Even so, Bennett's plan has stirred qualms within the Administration. Attorney General Dick Thornburgh worries about militarizing antidrug operations abroad. Says a Justice Department official: "Law-enforcement officers are trained to extract criminals from society, to think about the rights of innocent people and to be mindful of the sovereignty of other nations. Military forces are trained to take on whatever gets in the way, to destroy the enemy...