Rationale for Building the Santa Lucia Base

According to U.S. officials, the rationale for building the Santa Lucia base was to place U.S. personnel in the safest possible environment from which to conduct antidrug activities. Costs of the Santa Lucia Base

According to INM and U.S. embassy records, about $49.2 million was provided to construct, maintain, and operate the Santa Lucia base during fiscal years 1988-93. After coordinating with various U.S. agencies involved in antidrug activities regarding program options, the State Department decided that it could not adequately support maintenance and operations at the Santa Lucia base while supporting its antidrug programs in Peru and other countries. Thus, in December 1993, the United States stopped supporting the base and the Peruvian government assumed responsibility for the base’s administrative and operational control. However, the U.S. embassy has faced a number of obstacles to fully implementing a mobile basing concept for conducting antidrug missions, including problems with helicopter maintenance, internal conflicts over the responsibility for planning and coordinating antidrug operations, and a U.S. decision not to share with Peru real-time information and assistance that could lead to the shoot down of civilian aircraft suspected of drug trafficking. The delay was caused by internal differences within the U.S. embassy about the structure and staffing of the group. The executive branch is discussing this issue with the Peruvian government.
Why GAO Did This Study

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO provided information on U.S. antidrug efforts in Peru, focusing on the: (1) rationale for, and costs associated with, the construction, maintenance, and operations of the Santa Lucia antidrug base; (2) rationale for discontinuing support of the Santa Lucia base; and (3) current status of U.S. efforts to restructure antidrug programs in Peru.

What GAO Found

GAO found that: (1) the Santa Lucia base was constructed to place U.S. personnel in the safest possible environment from which to conduct antidrug activities; (2) between fiscal years 1988 and 1993, the State Department spent about $49.2 million to construct, maintain, and operate the Santa Lucia base; (3) in December 1993, the U.S embassy restructured its antidrug programs in Peru because it could not continue to support the base while also supporting other U.S. antidrug efforts; (4) although the executive branch has approved a formal mobile basing concept to implement antidrug efforts, the U.S. embassy has been slow in implementing the concept because of maintenance problems with helicopters, internal differences within the U.S. embassy over how the operational planning group would function to coordinate law enforcement operations, and the decision to stop sharing information with the government of Peru that could be used to shoot down civilian aircraft suspected of drug trafficking; and (5) although legislation has been passed to allow information sharing on drug activities, the Administration has not reached agreement with Peru on certain required preconditions.