Ollanta Humala

President Ullanta Humala is interviewed by foreign media in Lima

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• published: 03 Aug 2015
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Peru's President Ollanta Humala announced on Wednesday that Lima and Washington are reviewing bilateral agreements that would allow the shooting down of aircraft carrying illegal drugs. Humala also said that a no-fly zone had been established to ban flights over part of the Valley of the Apurimac, Ene and Mantaro River (VRAEM) - where most of Peru's cocaine is produced. "A major step was to declare the VRAEM corridor a no-fly zone," Humala said at a news conference in the presidential palace in Lima. He said the no-fly zone is" already regulated by the Ministry of Transport and Communications" and "will allow us to identify which airplanes violate that space." Humala said Lima and Washington are talking to "work together" to restart a programme - at an unspecified date - of shooting down aircraft that transport drugs out of the country. In 1995, Peru and the United States started targeting aircraft believed to be carrying cocaine to Colombia. But in 2001, a plane carrying American evangelicals was erroneously shot down, prompting both governments to cancel the aerial interdiction program. Peru is the world's largest producer of cocaine according to the US Drug Enforcement Administration, and the number one global producer of coca leaf, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/youtube/474f20fc61e9dd0128dd3d52f54b713c Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork