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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, March 25, 2002

Peru, US Pledge to Fight Against Terrorism, Drug Trafficking

Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said on Saturday night that both his country and the United States will fight against two common enemies: the drug trafficking and terrorism.


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Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo said on Saturday night that both his country and the United States will fight against two common enemies: the drug trafficking and terrorism.

Toledo made the statement during the dinner offered to the visiting presidents George W. Bush, of the United States; Jorge Quiroga, of Bolivia; Andres Pastrana, of Colombia, and Ecuadorian Vice President Pedro Pinto at the Presidential Palace.

Regarding the terrorism, Toledo said this evil not only casts a threat on the innocent life, but destroy social and economic structures of all the society.

"The Unites States itself suffered from the deadly September 11 terrorist attacks and we Peruvians have experienced the effects of terrorism here for nearly 25 years.

Toledo said that with join efforts of international community, one of the ways to eliminate terrorism is to fight against poverty, create decent and productive, stimulate the people's creative capacity and establish political, economic, social and judicial stability.

On the drug trafficking issue, he emphasized that poverty is an enemy to democracy, especially in those fragile societies. "My country does not ask for alms but investment to substitute those cocaine-producing crops with agricultural products, which can give an added value to the agriculture, both for the domestic market and for the exports".

In this sense, Toledo assured the renewal and extension of the Adean Trade Preferences Act (ATPA), which has been approved by the U.S. House of Representatives but is still lingering in the Senate, constitutes an instrument that will allow those Andean countries to expand their exports and substitute illicit drug crops.

The Peruvian President stressed the need to widen the economic basis and enlarge the market through trade and with a strategic alliance of investment, alongside the fight against terrorism, corruption and money laundering.

For his part, Bush said he had not decided whether to renew anti-drug surveillance flights over Peru. The U.S. anti-drug surveillance flights were suspended last April after a Peruvian military jet, acting on intelligence provided by a U.S. surveillance plane, shot down a civilian aircraft, killing a U.S. missionary and her seven-month infant daughter.

Bush arrived in Lima Saturday afternoon for an official visit to this Andean country, the first by a U.S. head of State to Peru.


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