The Killing of Veronica and Charity Bowers

One of the many heartbreaking stories told in Drug War Victims is that of Veronica Bowers and her 7-month-old daughter Charity Bowers, part of a missionary plane shot down over Peru in our drug war.

After 9 years, the CIA footage has finally been released of the tragic event. The footage is distant, yet you hear the voices of the Americans and Peruvians deciding the fate of the unknowing passengers. The casual approach exhibited to shooting down a plane full of people is absolutely sickening, particularly when it was clear that the most either side had was a rough guess that the plane might be a “bandito” rather than an “amigo.”

Guardian: CIA footage broadcast of fatal attack on plane carrying US missionaries in Peru: US agency denied covering up botched anti-drug operation that led to death of American woman and baby in 2001

“I’m at 4,000 feet. The military is here. I don’t know what they want,” [pilot] Donaldson says [to the tower]. Moments later the jets open fire and Donaldson is heard screaming: “They’re killing me! They’re killing me!” The CIA operatives are then heard to say “tell them to terminate, don’t shoot”. But by then it was too late. Bowers and her daughter were killed by a bullet from the jet’s guns.

This is your drug war.