On Friday, Peru shot down an American Baptist missionary plane. Peruvian authorities believed it was a drug smuggling plane. American authorities allegedly cautioned restraint until the plane could identify itself. Peruvian authorities ignored American concerns and shot it down anyway.
Unfortunately, there were survivors. A father and son survived while the gentlemen’s wife and infant lost their lives. There is no recourse for the survivors in American courts because Congress made US operatives in the area untouchable with a 1994 law that developed from a similar incident.
The possibility that this kind of stuff happens quite often is real. The Americans in the “drug war” will not be held accountable for their mistakes. The Peruvians–and any “drug war” ally–is going to use every opportunity justify continued financial and military aid from the US.
Any excuse is a valid excuse when you are sitting on a dock on the Amazon with bored, brainwashed and paranoid soldiers who are happy to use murder to break the daily monotony. The jungle can swallow up almost any mistake.
Almost.
Are drug cartels so strapped for cash that they still need to use Cessna 185 planes to get their products into the US? What small passenger plane would knowingly fly near military operations in a “drug zone” without filing their proper flight plans and related paperwork?
The Peruvian shootdown equals a FUBAR situation of the first order. It will be very interesting to see how it further develops. The US has already made their first steps towards blaming the victim. Certainly, it has to come to that in order for the US and Peru to wash the blood off their hands.
