Peru’s President Alan Garcia announced this week that his country needs to take a more violent and militaristic approach in the "War on Drugs".
Garcia said that the military should launch air strikes and machine-gun attacks against factories, farms and airstrips in the Amazon.
"We’ve got to finish every last cocaine factory and every last airport. Use the A37 planes, bomb and attack these airports, these cocaine factories with machine guns," said Garcia.
The country’s eradication campaign had been suspended when Agriculture Minister Juan Jose Salazar determined that Peru’s drug policies were failing, while actually increasing violence and cocaine production. He began negotiating with striking coca farmers, a move that raised the ire of more conservative drug-trafficking "experts".
"We are moving toward becoming a narco-state," said Sonia Medina, Peru’s top drug prosecutor.